PLANTS AS WORLD TRAVELLERS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12211, 8 August 1925, Page 16

PLANTS AS WORLD TRAVELLERS

It may seem strange to you at first to hear plants spoken of as travellers, yet really they are among the greatest travellers in the world. In ponds and streams and seaß all ove* ' the world there may be found plants which actually swim about quite vigorously, in‘the water, but they are mostly iso tiny that you would need a microscope to enable you to see them. The plants and trees of our fields and gardens, however, are travellers of another kind. In fact, they all have a specially-made travelling apparatus, which we usually call their fruit or seed. Have you ever thought what a very wonderful thing a seed really is? Hundreds of plants bear seeds so much alike that you can scarcely tell one from another, yet each one grows

a form almost exactly like the plant from which it was gathered. Two seeds may be of just the same size and shape, yet one grows into a tiny plant no larger than your own thumb, while the other grows into a giant tree, getting larger and larger for hundreds of years. And the wonderful thing ahout all these seeds is that they are really tiny plants, dried up into a resting state, and packed tightly into a sort of horny travelling case. When they ore dried and packed like that, they can stand tropic suns or polar snows without taking any harm, and if they do not find a suitable place to grow in, they can sleep in their strong wrappings for years together, without any food or drink. No wonder they make such excellent travellers!