THORNY PLANTS. 247 



birds resort thither, and carry off from them, as 

 from a storehouse, materials with which to make 

 their nests, and to form a bed for their callow young. 

 Thorns are generally disliked. The school-boy, who 

 climbs into a hedge to gather blackberries, 



When duly eager of the tempting store, 

 Adventurous hands the thorny maze explore, 



is often deterred from seizing the finest clusters by 

 the strong prickles which surround them. Village 

 maidens, too, whose hands are scratched, and their 

 frocks torn, when gathering violets among the 

 bushes, have little reason to speak well of them. 

 Yet both thorns and prickles are posted as guardians 

 in the places where they grow. They abound on 

 the stems and branches of some of our sweetest 

 flowering and berry-bearing shrubs. Poets and 

 moralists will tell you that they convey many lessons 

 to the passer-by; naturalists also speak of them 

 as answering important purposes in the vegetable 

 world. 



Returning to the productions of America, let us 

 take, for example, those which grow on the leaves 

 of the Sagiis genuina, or sago plant. "While the 

 tree is young and tender, the leaf stalks are fur- 

 nished with thorns which resemble sewing needles. 

 These thorns are essential to the preservation of 

 the plant, and without them the sago would 

 be lost to mankind. Wild hogs abound in the 

 country of the sagus, and are observed to be very 

 fond of the young plants; but they are deterred from 

 uprooting them by the sharp points which defend 

 the leaf-stalks, and which often inflict great pain 



