Deserts 



The remarkable woodiness and thorniness of desert 

 plants is probably directly connected with the dry con- 

 ditions under which they live. The absence of leaves 

 may have also been brought about in the same way.' 



Even our common whin forms leaves when it is 

 quite young or kept particularly fresh and moist, but 

 there is generally no trace of them when it grows in a 

 dry and exposed place. 



The connection between thorns, spines, and browsing 

 animals is a very old story, but unfortunately the con- 

 troversy has become a Httle acuminate and requires to 

 be very gingerly treated. 



One cannot possibly believe that a plant said to itself, 



*^ Those goats are destroying my leaves, and I shall 



(or will) make thorns and spines to daunt them." 



But as a matter of fact, not of theory, in every country 

 open bushlands, clearings in temperate forests, desert 

 fringes, and deserts are generally remarkable for the 

 number of thorny and spiny plants. But it is just such 

 places that a hunter of big game will first visit, for they 

 are always full of antelope and other animals. 



This coincidence is not confined to desert or dry 

 countries. Patches of brambles and rasps, thorn thickets, 

 furze, and whin are generally favourite places for rabbits, 

 and even pheasants and partridges, in our own islands. 



Thick, close forest or woodlands is as a rule very poor 

 in game, simply because there is but little grass, and if 

 it is natural forest it is by no means easy for them to 

 traverse it. 



Mr. Leavitt,^ in an interesting study of the cockspur 

 thorn, points out that '^ the first step is the hardening of 

 a small bit at the end of the winter bud." In open, 

 exposed, and especially in dry or desert countries, the 

 drying up by exposure of the extreme tip of a branch 

 or leaf must be an exceedingly common occurrence. 



175 



