2. In Gasteromycetes and in certain Hepaticae, the spores are not only elevated slightly above the sporophore by the expanding capillitium or by the mass of elaters, but they are also held apart in such a way that the wind blows them out much more readily.
3. In Bryophyta, the sporophore regularly dehisces by a slit, or is provided with a peristome. Both structures are for the purpose of sifting the spores out into the wind; by reason of their hygroscopicity, they also insure that the spores will not be shaken out in wet weather.
4. In a few grasses, such as Stipa and Aristida, the twisting and intertwining of the awns lift the floret out of the glumes, and at the same time constitute a contrivance readily blown away by the wind or carried by attachment.
5. In certain Compositae, the involucral scales are reflexed at maturity, and at the same time the disk becomes more or less convex, serving to loosen the achenes. This result is also secured in certain species by the drying and spreading of the pappus hairs.
6. The scapose Liguliflorae, Taraxacum, Agoseris, etc., are characterized by the elongation of the scape after anthesis, with the result that the head is raised to a considerable height by the time the achenes are mature.
7. Carpotropic movements, though primarily for another purpose, often serve to bring seeds and fruits into a better position for dissemination.
266. Seed production. The relation of spore or seed-production to mobility is obvious in the case of mobile species; in the case of immobile ones, it is just as evident that it has no effect, though it may still have considerable influence in increasing migration. In the case of two species with equally effective dissemination contrivances, the one with the largest seed-production will be the more mobile. On the basis of the relation of seeds to flower, two groups of plants may be distinguished, one, Polyanthae, in which the flowers are many and the seeds few or single, as in Compositae, and the other, Polyspermatae, Portulaca, Yucca, etc., in which the number of seeds to each flower is large. So far as the actual number of seeds produced is concerned, polyanthous plants may not differ from polyspermatous ones, but, as a rule, they are much more highly specialized for dissemination and are more mobile. The number of fertile seeds is also much greater, a fact which is of great importance in ecesis, and which, taken in connection with mobility, partially explains the supremacy of the composites. Among the fungi and algae, the amount of spore-production in a large degree determines the mobility, since these forms are intrinsically permobile.
267. Agents of migration. In the last analysis, however, the possibility of migration depends upon the action of distributive agents; in the absence of these, even the most perfect contrivance is valueless, while their presence brings about the distribution of the most immobile form. In short, migration depends much more upon such agents than upon mobility, however perfect the latter may be. It is, moreover, evident that the amount and extent of migration will be determined primarily by the permanence and forcefulness of the agent, as indicated by its ability to bring about transportation. Finally, as will be shown later, the direction and rapidity of migration depend directly upon the direction and intensity of the agent.
Migration results when spores, seeds, fruits, offshoots, or plants are moved out of their home by water, wind, animals, man, gravity, glaciers, growth, or mechanical propulsion. Corresponding to these agents, there may be recognized the following groups:
1. Water, hydrochores. These comprise all plants distributed exclusively by water, whether the latter acts as ocean currents, tides, streams, or surface run-off. In the case of streams and run-off, especially, mobility plays little part, provided the disseminules are impervious or little subject to injury by water. Motile plants, or those with motile cells, which belong entirely to this group, may be distinguished as autochores, which correspond closely to mastigospores.