Joseph Francis James

“ In the autumn the stem of the plant rots off, and the globe of branches dries up into a ball light as a feather, which is then driven through the air by the autumnal winds over the steppe. Numbers of such balls often fly at once over the plain with such rapidity that no horseman can catch them ”

“ How is the change to arise which will bring the dodder to its present condition?
Evolutionists acknowledge that all changes in either plants or animals are the results of changes in conditions or surroundings. When once a change has occurred which is beneficial in a certain way, the probability is, that the plant or animal will continue to develop in that direction till it diverges widely from the original form. The struggle for existence will cause all the imperfect forms to be killed off, and only those will survive which are best suited to the altered conditions of life. ”

“ The Indian pipe, again, is a little plant which lives in the débris of forests, finding its food in the mass of decaying vegetable mold. While it is not probable that its roots are connected with those of the trees under which it grows, it is certain that the rich matter there found contains the constituents it requires for its growth. It, like the dodder, is destitute of green leaves, and for the same reason, namely, because it finds its food already prepared for it and has only to absorb it. But it differs in taking the food from the dead and decayed matter, instead of from the living. ”

“ In this state the wind, always so powerful on plains of sand, tears up the dry ball and rolls it upon the desert. If in the course of its violent transmission the ball is thrown upon a pool of water, the humidity is promptly absorbed by the woody tissue, the branches unfold, and the seed-vessels open; the seeds, which, if they had been dropped upon the dry sand, would never have germinated, sow themselves naturally in the moist soil where they are sure to be developed, and the young plants will be certain of nourishment. ”

“ What wonder, then, that with seeds so minute and so numerous these plants should be almost universally distributed? Out of 200 lichens, for instance, brought home to England by the Antarctic Expedition under Sir James Ross, almost every one has been ascertained to be also an inhabitant of the northern hemisphere, and most of them of Europe. It is easy enough to imagine the wind capable of transporting minute spores to immense distances over land and ocean. Many plants not possessing small seeds are carried off bodily by the wind to distant localities. ”

“ When we find, therefore, two plants of the same species, or of the same genus closely allied to each other, inhabiting the United States and Europe, or Europe and New Zealand, we must naturally suppose that at some time or other they had descended from the same kind of an ancestor, but that owing to circumstances they have become widely separated. Plants are not like animals, endowed with locomotive organs, and they must therefore have depended on the elements to transport them. ”

“ The extraordinary development of climbing powers has been gradually acquired in the course of ages. In times and places where vegetation was not dense, and where the struggle for light was not great, plants of erect habit succeeded well. Then it was a conflict to see which could grow tallest. But when a weak plant found that, by taking hold of its tall and erect neighbor and by clinging to it, it could reach the sunlight much easier and by an expenditure of much less material than by growing erect itself, it was a great step on the road. ”

“ The want of a root is another matter. When the seed of the dodder is examined, it is found that there is simply a coiled embryo, with very little albumen. The usual seed-leaves are absent; so that, for its first growth, it must depend entirely upon the albumen in the seed. When this seed first germinates, a little rootlet penetrates the ground. Owing to the deficiency of food, it only exists long enough to enable its stem to grow till it reaches some plant upon which it can fasten. When this is accomplished, the young plant will grow rapidly, and soon sever its connection with the ground ”

“ It is a trite remark that although there may be places identical in temperature, in soil, in humidity, and other circumstances governing the stations of plants in both North America and Europe, and in South America and Africa, still it does not necessarily follow that the species of plants in these identical localities are alike or even at all similar. Indeed, researches show it to be rarely or never the case. In almost every country, however, there seems to be a certain though sometimes a small proportion of plants which are found in other and distant parts of the world. ”

“ There can be no doubt whatever that, after inundations of the land by the rivers, plants spring up in localities where they were unknown before, and the inference is just that the seeds were conveyed by the water.
Birds, too, furnish another and important means of transport. Many fruits having a seed incased in a hard shell are surrounded by a juicy pulp: such are the cherry, plum, mistletoe-berry, hawthorn, etc. All these are eaten by birds which, assimilating the pulp, cast the stones in their excrement. The parasitic mistletoe has no way of being disseminated but by the birds ”

“ The mesquite-trees along the Colorado are quite large, and the Yuma Indians find a considerable store of food in the beans.
It is surprising to a stranger to see these Indians walking round in the sun without any bead-covering except their hair, and nothing whatever on their feet, with the sand hot enough to scorch the skin of any one unaccustomed to it. They are not bothered with clothes, the braves at all events, for their dress is often solely a breech-clout about the waist, or occasionally a thin under-shirt in addition. ”

“ Others do not grow up into the air, but trail along the ground or over low plants, and thus secure their due share of sunlight. Others, again, climb freely, and this is the case with the dodder.
The climbing bitter-sweet is said to sometimes strangle the trees upon which it grows. The constriction caused by its growing stem is so great as to cut off the supply of sap from the roots, and cause the death of the tree which has supported it. The original ancestor of the dodder was a plant with a well-developed root, green stem and leaves, and a twining habit. ”

“ Let but this habit grow and be improved upon, as it surely will be if it is found beneficial, and from this small beginning we can look for just such a development as has been found in the dodder. It can not be said that there is always an upward progress in Nature. Degenerate forms exist and thrive as well as regenerate ones. The truth is, that when a plant or an animal can fill a vacant space in the world better by going backward than by going forward, the retreat is sounded. ”

“ But the bones of an extinct race of men, interesting though they may be, can tell us but little of their domestic habits, and it is to the implements found here that we turn with greatest interest. These are so abundant, and often of such a peculiar character, that we have much to speculate upon. First of all is the remarkable circumstance of finding so many implements of bone; the abundance of which has generally been thought to be a proof of a low grade of civilization. ”

“ The Colorado River at Yuma is a good-sized stream. The water is very muddy, and, even when settled, has a milky tinge. It is, nevertheless, very good to drink, being, in fact, the best in the country. The stream is navigable for small steamers for about three hundred and seventy-five miles above Yuma, but in low water the boats often run aground on the sand-bars, and have to be stilted over them with timbers. ”

“ In attempting to trace the origin of any particular habit peculiar to any one species, it is always necessary to examine the near relatives and see in what respects they resemble and in what ones they differ from the plant under consideration. The dodder belongs to the Convolvulaceæ, or the morning-glory family, and one of the most striking features of this family is found in their habits of twining. ”

“ If each succeeding generation of rooting stemmed plants throve better in any way, perfected seed in any greater abundance, or were enabled to crowd out competitors in the struggle for life, we may be sure that the descendants of the favored plants would inherit these good traits, and would send more and more rootlets into the enveloped stem, until at last the habit would become firmly fixed. ”

“ At the end of its life, and in consequence of drought, its texture becomes almost woody, its branches curve up into a sort of ball, the valves of its pods are closed, and the plant holds to the soil by nothing but a root without fibers. ”

“ At Flowing-Well Station there was, when the railroad was first put through, a well bored to get water to supply the locomotives. The surface-water, all through the desert, is so alkaline that it is impossible to use it. It is, therefore, necessary for the railroad to haul water on every train for about a hundred miles. Trains going both ways take one or more tank-cars, for the supply of section-hands and engines. ”

“ The origin of this habit is found in the fact that sunlight and air are two things needful for a plant's proper growth and development. In situations where these two things are found in limited quantities, plants with climbing habits and animals with arboreal instincts will abound. In Brazil, for instance, where immense tracts are covered with a dense forest-growth, it is noticed that all forms of animal life have become adapted to residence in trees. Many of them live there entirely. Monkeys seldom leave the tree-tops. ”

“ The heat in summer is simply fearful, and this, added to the sand-storms, makes it anything but a desirable place of residence. Men can only be induced to work on the railroad by offering them increased wages. All the section-houses along the road (and for nearly two hundred miles there are no other habitations) are built in a peculiar manner. None are more than one story high. ”

“ Beads made of pieces of fresh-water and marine shells are found among the other remains. Sometimes pieces are cut from the mussel-shell, rubbed round, and then a hole bored. Sometimes specimens of Melania or Paludina holes bored near the aperture, and were then used as beads. The beads made of marine shells show that some system of barter or commerce existed with the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf. Quantities of shells, of species of the genus Unio, "fresh-water oysters," are found. They go to show that shell-fish formed an article of diet of the race. ”

“ The direction best suited to Nature's needs is the one taken; so that, while on the one hand there may be a wonderfully complex organism, perfectly fitted for the struggle for life, on the other hand there may be a very degenerate one equally fitted into its place. ”

“ Where we find an isolated example of a group of plants existing in one country, while its nearest congeners are in another perhaps thousands of miles off, we naturally feel interested in trying to discover the cause of this wide separation, and the means by which the plant has reached its present location. ”

“ Seeds are lodged on the platforms of the cars, are carried along by the wind created by the passing trains, and in many other ways are distributed along the track. There is an instance of the work of the railroad in the east end of Cincinnati, near Fulton, on the Little Miami Railroad. For the last two or three years there have been growing great numbers of Euphorbia marginata, a plant which is a native of the plains of Kansas, and which is slowly but surely working its way toward the East by means of the railroads. ”

“ The animal life in the desert is meager in the extreme, and in many places there is none at all. Along one stretch of twenty miles, where there are no trees of any size, the woodpeckers and little wrens have made their nests in holes dug in the telegraph-poles. It is strange that the habits of these birds have not been modified to suit the surroundings, but they have probably come into the country since the poles were erected. ”

“ Among the most interesting remains of any race of people, are the rude beginnings of art they have left behind them; and, though the people under consideration did not have, as far as we know, any written language, they have left a few memorials of their artistic feelings in the shape of some carvings on bone, and a few inscribed stones. The most interesting of these are here figured. Fig. ”

“ Yuma itself is situated in a hollow, surrounded on three sides by sand-hills. No breeze can cool the air, and the sun, beating down with almost tropical fervor, often causes the thermometer to register 120° in the shade. Even at night it is hot, for the earth radiates the heat received during the day, and the inhabitants find it almost unbearable. Many sleep on the house-tops, and many more on the sidewalks in front of the houses, making their morning toilets in the open air. ”