Running fires are set everywhere, with a view to clearing the ground of prostrate trunks, to facilitate the movements of the flocks and improve the pastures.
From April to May, when the snow by repeated thawing and freezing is firmly compacted, you may ride over the prostrate groves without seeing a single branch or leaf of them.
Oliver knew, perfectly well, that he was in his own little room; that his books were lying on the table before him; that the sweet air was stirring among the creeping plants outside.
The posture of the figures (humans and animals) creeping and stepping on a particular area of the map stand for the occupation of that territory in physical reality (sub-event for complex event metonymy).
In woods where food is abundant they wear paths through sheltering thickets and over prostrate trees to some favorite pool where in hot and dry weather they drink at nearly the same hour every day.
He thought this could've been a rhizome – a special type of root that grows sideways, which some modern plants use to reproduce, sort of like the creeping vines that come out of a strawberry plant.