62 



did not know what fun I had been having. Nor could he know 

 that the handful of brown and withered stuff that formed the trophy 

 of my half-hours' trip would offer me a juicy cud to chew. 



Prominent in my winter bouquet were several sprigs of burdock 

 with rigid stems and bristhng burs (Fig. 35). If you, too, want to 



hear the story Sir Bur will tell under ques- 

 tioning you can probably find the material in 

 l^lenty on the nearest waste land or in a fence 

 corner, or by the roadside. 



You, as well as I, in all likelihood, made 

 bur baskets and furniture, and even people 

 richly garbed in green and purple, all your 

 childhood days ; yet did you ever stop to 

 think how the burs stick so pertinaciously ? 

 Why they should ? And what they do for 

 the plant? No, even tlie tormenting little 

 boy from across the road who made use of 

 their valuable properties in ornamenting your 

 long hair witli bundles of burs probably could 

 not have told you why they were so effective. 

 Notice first, then, the numerous tiny hooks 

 bristling in every direction (Fig. 36). How 

 abrupt is the curve of each hook, liow smooth 

 and poHshed the outer surface ! It will push 

 readily between the finest and closest fibers. 

 How sharp is the incurved point ! See, it has 

 penetrated your skin as you press the bur lightly between your 

 ngers! The slender shanks of the hooks yield readily 

 to pressure only to gain more tenacious hold. In disen. 

 tangling one you are caught by five. The stems all stand 

 stiff and rigid, holding the burs unyieldingly in your way 

 and adding to the advantage of the flexiljle hooks. Your 

 clothing brushes a bur ever so lightly, the fibers at the 



base break readily and away your bur travels ; and not 36. Bwr- 



singly usually, for note how the branches have so grown, dock 

 the lower ones lengthening, that the burs are practically ** 



clustered by twos and threes and fours, with hooks interlacing, 

 and they go together. So, clinging with a score or two of little 



454 



35 



-Burs (f the bur- 

 dock. One- third 

 natural size. 



