''DEFENCE, NOT DEFIANCE.'' 



151 



stiffened hairs, as in the Gooseberry and Bramble. 

 Or they are produced by aborted branches, as in 

 the Sloe and Whitethorn ; and at other times they 

 are the result of the complex changes which leaves 

 have undergone. The latter are perhaps best shown 



Fig. 61. — Flower- Fig. 62. — Sepals Fig. 63. — Flower- Fig. 64. — Flower-bud 

 bud oi R. ne- oi R. ccesius. hud of R. /its- oi R. umbros7is. 



morosiis. co-ate r. 



All these flower-buds possess defensive prickles and stiftened hairs. 



in the Caeti^ where the stiff, needle -like thorns in 

 reality are aborted leaves, whose duty is now purely 

 defensive, and whose carbon - absorbing work is 

 deputed to the succulent green stem, provided with 

 stomata for the purpose. 



At the Cape Euphorbias assume quite a Cactus- 

 like shape. One of them {Eti^pJiorbia grandidens .?) 

 is described by Sir Charles Bunbury {Botanical 

 Fragments) as follows : " When seen at a great 

 distance its general form is not very unlike that of 

 a Pine-tree, though it is extremely different on a 

 near view. It has no leaves, but its young branches 

 are extremely succulent, green, thick, angular, like 

 those of a Cactics, and beset along the angles with 

 pairs of short spines. ... Its flowers, which are of 



