This little book is prepared with the thought of helping youngbotanists and teachers. Unless the reader has followed in detail,by actual experience, some of the modes of plant dispersion, he canhave little idea of the fascination it affords, or the rich rewardsin store for patient investigation.
A brief list of contributions to the subject is given; but, with veryfew exceptions, the statements here made, unless otherwise mentionedin the text, are the results of observations by the author.
I am under obligations for suggestions by my colleague, Prof. W. B.Barrows; my assistant, Prof. C. F. Wheeler; and a former instructorof botany, L. H. Dewey, now of the United States Department ofAgriculture. B. O. Longyear, instructor in botany, with very fewexceptions, has made the drawings.
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, MICHIGAN
.
Most of the larger animals move about freely
Some animals catch rides in one way or another
Fairy rings
How nature plants lilies
Roots hold plants erect like ropes to a mast
How oaks creep about and multiply
Two grasses in fierce contention
Runners establish new colonies
Branches lean over and root in the soil
Living branches snap off and are carried by water or wind
Some green buds and leaves float on water
Fleshy buds drop off and sprout in the mud