NEW YORK 



BOTANICAL 



GARDEN 



THE ^./J^ERICP BDTPIST. 



Vol. VIL BINGHAMTON, N. Y., SEPTEMBER. 1904. No. 3< 



THE EVE OF DEPARTURE. 



BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY. 

 jH LL Slimmer, vinder careful home influences, the seeds 

 ^ J- have been preparing for an eventual flight. Until 

 adolescence, and sometimes at maturity they are protected 

 in a multiplicit}^ of waA'S. The evils against which they 

 must contend are weather, animals of many kinds, from 

 insect to man, and friends of their own household, who 

 hesitate not at an advantage. Against the last enemy 

 alertness is the onlj'- protection ; reciprocity is unknown. 



In autumn or ^vinter one has only to think of the four- 

 valved involucre of the chestnut, beset with needle-like 

 prickles. No one cares to handle it without gloves. These 

 valves are no part of the fruit proper. The three regular 

 fruits are found within and are commonly mistaken for 

 seeds. That they are not is easily seen by their persistent, 

 attenuate st3'les and radiate stigmas. No true seed has 

 such an appendage. 



Another common illustration is afforded by the star 

 cucumber, where it is the fruit that is armed. In this case 

 the acicular prickles are easily detached by a touch, pene- 

 trating clothes and skin, and often, like cactuses, leaving 

 a broken part to irritate or fester. The miserable bur^ 

 grass {Xanthiutn) of our sea-shores and dunes, is even 

 more troublesome. Wretched is the man in whose hose it 

 becomes imbedded ! 



We might enlarge upon this kind of armature, and tell 

 how in case of thistles, cactuses and nettles, or worse than 

 these, the stinging Jatropha the whole plant contributes 

 to the defence of the seed. In this and nettles we find the 

 hairs additionalh^ provided with poison-glands. When 

 the hair breaks, venom is discharged into the wound. It 



