PLANTS RIDE ON ANIMALS 95 



bony, the fleshy or pulpy matter being dried up or 

 absent. They have thus the appearance of huge 

 long-legged spiders. The thorns or hooks are ex- 

 ceedingly sharped and recurved, lacerating the flesh 

 and tearing the clothes fearfully when they have 

 become attached. These spines are merely natural 

 prolongations ; the flowers are of a rich crimson and 

 purple colour; the corolla is tubular and somewhat 

 of the shape of the foxglove; the calyx is five- 

 parted; and the fruit contains a number of pecu- 

 liarly wrinkled seeds." 



It is claimed that the fruits of this plant some- 

 times bring death to so powerful an animal as the 

 royal lion. If while rolling about on the dry plains 

 they attach themselves to the lion's skin, in trying 

 to get them out he often gets them into his mouth 

 and as a result perishes in great agony. 



The number of plants whose seeds ride on ani- 

 mals is very large ; but there are some more progres- 

 sive or more fortunate than their neighbours who 

 do their travelling by means of the railroads ; some 

 even take long steamboat journeys. Seeds of vari- 

 ous kinds, like the grasses and sedges, clovers, and 

 flax, often ride to regions uninhabited by their kind 

 in the bedding or litter of stock cars. When the 

 cars arrive at the stock-yards they are unloaded but 

 seldom cleaned; instead, they are sent with their 



