WANDERINGS OF XANTHIUM 



(Robin-run-the-Hedge), Burdock, Forget-me-not, Sanicle, 

 Avens, etc., have very often been described. It is only 

 necessary to examine one's clothes after a walk through 

 rough, broken ground to discover some of them, and the 

 ingenuity and neatness of their tiny hooks, harpoons, or 

 prongs can then be realized. We shall give one or two 

 instances of some other spiny plants. There is, for instance, 

 Xanthium, which is one of the Daisy flowers or Composites. 

 Unlike most of this order, its little fruits possess no wind- 

 hairs. The outside of the head of flowers is covered by 

 strong curved little crooks. These get so entangled in wool 

 or hair that they become a perfect pest to wool merchants. 

 In 1814 Xanthium was unknown in the Crimea, but by 1856 

 it had covered the whole of the peninsula. In 1828 the 

 Russian cavalry horses brought it on their manes and tails 

 into Wallachia, from whence it travelled to Servia. Servian 

 pigs carried it into Hungary. In 1830 it was taken in wool to 

 Vienna. By 1871 it had reached Paris and Edinburgh. In 

 1860 Frauenfeld saw horses in Chile whose manes and tails 

 were so felted together with thousands of these fruits that 

 the animals could scarcely walk. In Australia, where it first 

 appeared in 1850, it has caused a very serious loss to the 

 wool merchants and squatters. The loss has been put at 

 50 per cent, by some authorities.^ 



We have already alluded to the transference of fruits and 

 seeds by ocean currents. In the Challenger expedition, no 

 less than ninety-seven kinds of marine floating fruits were 

 observed. 



Amongst these the most important is the Cocoanut. The 



nut sold in this country is not the whole fruit, but only the 



inside shell. In the natural state this is enclosed in a dense 



* Ludwig, Z.C., after Ihne, Frauenfeld, Shaw. 

 259 



