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Personality of plants

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PERSONALITY OF PLANTS<br />

Plant seeds, which like to travel on animals,<br />

all pnovide themselves with grappling irons in<br />

the shape <strong>of</strong> sharp hooks, spurs and spines with<br />

which they cling to their carriers. Everybody<br />

in the northern United States knows <strong>of</strong> the avid-<br />

ity with which the Cockle-bur clings to any<br />

passing object. The Touch-me-not (Impa-<br />

tiens), the Wistaria, and a host <strong>of</strong> others, actually<br />

shoot their seeds from their pods as from<br />

a gun.<br />

Every vagrant breeze, every purling brook,<br />

every deep river, every ocean current, is a highway<br />

<strong>of</strong> travel in plantdom. The birds, the<br />

beasts, the insects, and not least, man himself,<br />

are involuntary vehicles on which our vege-<br />

table friends tour the world. The spores <strong>of</strong><br />

Mosses, Lichens, Fungi and other cryptogams<br />

are so light that they find no difficulty in mount-<br />

ing into the air and traveling across the Atlan-<br />

tic or Pacific Oceans at will.<br />

The complete record <strong>of</strong> plant conquests<br />

would fill many volumes. Their operations<br />

have extended into every land and have had<br />

influence on the world's history. It very <strong>of</strong>ten<br />

happens that plant invaders become so quickly<br />

[48]

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