Every wind that blows brings something to it,--dust,
powdered earth, trash, the remains of dead insects; some of this
material is carried for miles. All goes to form new soil, or to
fertilize or mulch the old. This supplies Kinnikinick's great needs.
The plant grows rich from the constant tribute of the winds. The
soil-bed grows deeper and richer and is also constantly outbuilding
and enlarging, and Kinnikinick steadily increases its size.

In a few years a small oasis is formed in, or rather on, the barren.
This becomes a place of refuge for seed wanderers,--in fact, a
nursery. Up the slope I saw a young pine standing in a kinnikinick
snow-cover. In the edge of the snow-tuft by me, covered with a robe of
snow, I found a tiny tree, a mere baby pine. Where did this pine come
from? There were no seed-bearing pines within miles. How did a pine
seed find its way to this cosy nursery? Perhaps the following is its
story: The seed of this little pine, together with a score or more of
others, grew in a cone out near the end of the pine-tree limb. This
pine was on a mountain several miles from the fire-ruined slope, when
one windy autumn day some time after the seeds were ripe, the cone
began to open its fingers and the seeds came dropping out. The seed
of this baby tree was one of these, and when it tumbled out of the
cone the wind caught it, and away it went over trees, rocks, and
gulches, whirling and dancing in the autumn sunlight. After tumbling a
few miles in this wild flight, it came down among some boulders. Here
it lay until, one very windy day, it was caught up and whirled away
again. Before long it was dashed against a granite cliff and fell to
the ground; but in a moment, the wind found it and drove it, with a
shower of trash and dust, bounding and leaping across a barren slope,
plump into this kinnikinick nest. From this shelter the wind could not
drive it. Here the little seed might have said, "This is just the
place I was looking for; here is shelter from the wind and sun; the
soil is rich and damp; I am so tired, I think I'll take a sleep." When
the little seed awoke, it wore the green dress of the pine family.
The kinnikinick's nursery had given it a start in life.

Under favorable conditions Kinnikinick is a comparatively rapid
grower. Its numerous vinelike limbs--little arms--spread or reach
outward from the central root, take a new hold upon the earth, and
prepare to reach again. The ground beneath it in a