LUTHER BURBANK 
pulpy covering with a thick green skin, and its 
bulb and hook suggest some kind of gourd. 
When the seeds within are mature, the outside 
covering splits and peels away, disclosing a seed 
nest which is armored with spines more thickly 
than a prickly pear. That which, during its early 
stages, formed the hook, now spreads into two 
branches with pointed ends sharper than pins, 
almost as sharp as needles. 
Between these four-inch hooks, where they join 
the spiny bulb behind them, there appears a hole 
from which the seeds, if loosened from their 
former pulpy support, may, by pounding and 
thumping, find their way out into the world. 
As the seed pod lies on the ground, its sharp 
hooks coiled in exactly the right position, it awaits 
a passing animal. This spring trap may remain 
set for many months, but once an animal, big or 
small, steps between those fish-hook points, their 
mission is accomplished. ‘The first slight kick or 
struggle to get away imbeds them deeply, and at 
each succeeding struggle the hooks bite in, and in, 
and in, until finally the animal, in its efforts for 
release, pulls the seed pod from the plant and 
starts to run. 
Swinging to a leg or tail, suspended by the two 
sharp points of its prongs, the spiny housing of 
the seed pod comes now into play. At each bound 
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