Thorny and Climbing Plants. (A walk) 93 



CHAPTER XII 



THORNY AND CLIMBING PLANTS. (A WALK) 



Season. About third week in March. 

 Materials required. 



Twigs of various prickly, spiny and thorny plants 

 and climbers other than those mentioned in the lesson 

 will be wanted for home work Each child should 

 collect them during the walk and take them home. 



Most of the small four-legged inhabitants of our 

 woods and fields are vegetarian in their tastes, hence 

 any natural protection which will keep them away from 

 a plant will be of great service to it. This protection 

 takes several forms. Sometimes the leaves are un- 

 pleasantly bitter or even poisonous, in other cases the 

 plant is provided with bristly hairs or with spines. 

 How well these spines can serve their purpose is seen 

 in the common gorse which, as it grows old, becomes 

 such a mass of spines that the cattle, which liked to 

 browse on the young shoots before the spines hardened, 

 leave the older ones severely alone. During our walk 

 to-day I want you to see some of the forms these thorny 

 defences take. 



One of the first examples that you will come across 

 is that of a weed which grows everywhere and from 

 which you have all learnt to keep away unless your 

 hands are well protected. I am speaking of the stinging 

 nettle. Its leaves and stem are covered with stiff hairs, 

 and each of these hairs is hollow and contains a little 



