nd leaves. Ducks and other
water-fowl not infrequently carry some of these wet buds sticking to
their feathers or legs.

In this connection the following plants may be examined from time
to time: _Lemna_, _Wolffia_, _Anacharis_ (_Elodea_), _Myriophyllum_,
_Cabomba_, and several species of _Potamogeton_. I have seen the
leaves of lake cress, _Nasturtium lacustre_, often spontaneously
separate from the stem, possibly carrying at the base the rudiments
of a small bud, which draws on the floating leaf for nourishment and
produces a small plant near its base. These plants, floated and
nourished by the mother leaf, may drift down a creek or across a pond
and establish new settlements. In a similar manner behave leaves of
the following, and perhaps others: _Cardamine pratensis_,
horse-radish, celandine, some water lilies, and other plants not
grown in wet land.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Floating leaf of lake cress, _Nasturtium
lacustre_, with a young plant growing from the base.]

Gardeners often propagate certain species by placing leaves on wet
sand or mud, when buds spring from the margins of the leaves or from
some other portion.

One of the buttercups, _Ranunculus multifidus_, and very likely
others, spread over the mud by producing runners, much after the
manner of a strawberry plant. If, as in case of a freshet, the plants
should be covered with water, they show their enterprise by taking
advantage of the "tide"; some of the runners are quickly severed,
and are then at liberty to go as they please.

12. Fleshy buds drop off and sprout in the mud.--One of the
loosestrifes, _Lysimachia stricta_, a plant growing in bogs, besides
reproducing itself by rootstocks and seeds, bears fleshy buds half
an inch long, which separate from the stems and take root in the mud
near the parent plant, or often float to another spot. The buds on
the stems of _Cicuta bulbifera_ develop into small bulbs, which
readily separate from the plant. They then float on the water and
produce new plants. The tiger lily also produces bulblets, which
scatter about and promptly take root. Every person of good
understanding must have heard or read about seeds carried by ocean
currents or transported by lake, pond, creek, or by muddy current,
during, and after, a shower of rain; in most of these the wind is
also a prominent factor. Many seeds and fruits, in some cases parts,
and even the whole, of plants seem to be purposely designed for this
mode o