17G 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
No. 149. 
THE PASSING SHOWER 
(Engraved for the American Agriculturist.) 
The somewhat embarrassing, yet apparently 
pleasant position in which these two young people 
chance to be placed, is suggestive of many agree¬ 
able thoughts, with which a column miehtbe easily 
filled ; but the story is so well told by the pic¬ 
ture itself, from the placard on the tree to the 
rainbow over the church spire, that a descriptive 
chapter is wholly unnecessary. The picture will 
be read with interest. This peculiarity of tel¬ 
ling their own story, will be noticed as charac¬ 
teristic of most of the numerous engravings ap¬ 
pearing from time to time in the Agriculturist. 
Geographical Distribution of Plants- 
It is generally admitted, we suppose, that plants 
(by which we mean trees and all other vegetable 
productions,) were at the first distributed by the 
Creator over the earth. They have not spread 
Ihemselves, as man has done, from one spot in 
Asia over the other regions of the globe, but 
were for the most part originally created and 
placed where they are now found existing. Why 
they were so distributed, we perhaps do not know, 
except that God designed the whole earth to be 
inhabited by man and beast. Plants, obviously, 
must grow in order to furnish subsistence for ani¬ 
mals and men; and they are needful also for 
medicines, and in the arts, and for lumber. Plants 
were adapted to the particular region in which 
they were designed to grow. The palm-tree, for 
instance, was adapted to the tropics, and was 
placed there instead of at the poles. And be¬ 
sides this genoral distribution, plants were as¬ 
signed to particular localities. To the sea, were 
given marine plants; to fresh water, aquatics. 
Marshes had other species; common soil had oth¬ 
ers still; and even arid plains were not left desti¬ 
tute. Rocks and trees w^re covered with moss¬ 
es and lichens. Here were parasites, like mis¬ 
tletoe ; and there were air-plants, like the black 
moss ,(Tillandsia usneoidcs) of our southern States, 
This, we say, is th egeneral law, viz.: that plants 
were originally created for a specific climate and 
soil and aspect, and that they have retained the 
position at first assigned them. Yet, this gener¬ 
al law has exceptions. Plants have been car¬ 
ried from one part of the earth to another in va¬ 
rious ways. Our wheat, potatoes, and other farm 
products are not indigenous to our soil. The 
finest and the largest number of the vegetables of 
our kitchen gardens have come to us from across 
the ocean. So of our flowering plants, shrubs, 
and many ornamental trees. Seeds of plants are 
carried far by the tides of the ocean, and by riv¬ 
ers and other streams. They are borne many 
miles through the air in parachutes furnished by 
nature herself, as for example, the thistle-seed on 
its down. They are carried in the crops of birds, 
in the stomachs of animals, and as burrs in their 
hair. Many of the plants so disseminated, do not 
succeed well in their new abodes, and many die 
after the growth of a single Summer. This is the 
case, especially, with those which have spread 
from one climate into another, as for example, 
from the south to the north. These are seldom 
