WHY PLANTS TRAVEL. . 3 
better for them to do this at a distance from their 
parents. 
Plants eat what is in the soil, and each kind of plant 
needs some particular earth food. When plants of one 
kind are crowded too closely in a place the earth is 
often impoverished, and the plant might die out if it 
were not able to find a fresh growing place. Then, 
again, if the seeds always fell close to the parent plant, 
the earth would soon become too crowded to support 
more than a very few new plants. 
So for these and other reasons it is best for the seeds 
to go while they are able and find a place for themselves. 
Nearly all seeds are provided with some way of mov- 
ing about, and while some of them go very short dis- 
tances others go very long ones. 
They travel for their profit, and why may we not say 
for their pleasure ? For if a plant is able to feel and 
enjoy at all, — and I for one believe it is, — then the 
dandelion seeds must feel very joyous sailing before the 
wind in the early summer, and later the thistle-down 
and the milkweed seeds, scudding before the breeze. 
Sfe_ 
f* 
Some happy wanderers 
