DROUGHT IN WATERBERG, SOUTH AFRICA—-MARAIS. 517 
found in the internal tissues of animals, having gone through coat, 
muscle, and flesh. It often penetrates human flesh, and is then 
always a source of serious danger. Every movement, however slight, 
causes the embedded seed to penetrate deeper, and frequently aserious 
surgical operation only can remove it. But it was not for this purpose 
only that its penetrative qualities were evolved. It is a common 
thing in good rain years to come across a mass of these seeds drifted 
together by the wind. It is then that one has an opportunity of see- 
ing a wonder of plant life, quite startling in the apparent intelligence 
disclosed. The seeds as they lie are huddled and orderless like cas- 
ually thrown spillikins. If one sprinkle a little water on the mass a 
tremor as of awakening life is almost immediately seen to pass through 
them. Movements in all directions follow; spasmodic jerks, twistings, 
and turnings, so animal-like as almost to leave one in doubt whether 
they veritably are seeds and not insects. And this doubt intensifies 
as the process continues and the purpose becomes more apparent. 
One sees that by these movements the seeds are disentangling them- 
selves; and when this is effected, each one becomes engaged in inde- 
pendent movements. At first it all seems erratic and casual, and itis 
only after careful watching that it dawns upon one that all these 
movements are quite ordered and have a definite purpose. The first 
spring-like twistings lift the seedhead clear off the ground and free it 
from obstructing fellows. A bend of the tail, on which it then rests, 
turns the torpedo head point earthwards. It is gradually lowered 
until the needle point with its harpoon bristles is thrust into the damp 
soil with a steady and continuous pressure from the tail. This move- 
ment is continued until the entire seed is embedded, the whole opera- 
tion occupying 15 minutes. But its chief protection against drought 
and the accompanying ineffective and, in fact, fatal night showers lies 
herein, that if the soil be only shghtly damped the seed penetrates 
beyond the line of moisture and remains thus without germinating, 
ready planted, waiting for enough rain to insure the safety of the 
future seedling. This penetration is proportionate to the length of 
tail, and it will be found at the end of a season of severe drought that 
the species with the longest tailed seeds have started more seedlings 
than the relatively short-tailed. The hard shells of these seeds also 
require a definite and large amount of moisture to soften. 
Of all these advantages the seeds of the sweeter and softer grasses 
are deprived. The clumps die and the seeds germinate with the first 
slight shower only to die next day in the scorching sun. And thus it 
happens that yearly the famous sweet veld of Waterberg is diminish- 
ing and getting more and more mixed and its value as a cattle district 
proportionately deteriorating. And not only are the sweet grasses 
thus handicapped by changed environment, but man enters into the 
