114 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



for the growth of the young plant. Indeed, the pea kind 

 ranks next to the grasses as a producer of human food- 

 stuffs supplying us with peas, beans, lentils, and many 

 other well-known pulses. But these rich seeds are 

 always much sought after by animals as food ; and there- 

 fore the plants have been driven to devise the most cu- 

 rious plans for thwarting their enemies ; or, in other 

 words, those which showed any tendency in the direction 

 of producing inedible pods have thereby gained an ad- 

 vantage over their competitors and survived accordingly. 

 Here, for example, is a sprig of yellow nonsuch, a clover- 

 like trailer grown in the meadows as an " artificial 

 grass," because of its rich little beans, concealed in the 

 small black kidney-shaped pods ; this is a relatively ill- 

 adapted form, largely preserved by man's providence. 

 But here again is a bit of the truly wild medick, a 

 closely allied plant, which farmers hate ; for the cattle 

 will scarcely touch it, so sternly has it armed itself 

 against their dreaded depredations. In leaf, flower, and 

 general appearance the two are typical pea-plants, differ- 

 ing but very little from one another. But in their fruit 

 they are extremely unlike. The medick has a long 

 curved pod, completely twisted round and curled tightly 

 up into a close spiral, so that it looks more like a little 

 brown ball than a common pea-pod. All round the edge 

 this ball is thickly defended by double rows of stout 

 hooked prickles, which naturally make it about as un- 

 pleasant to the mouths of the cattle as a burr or a thistle. 

 The subterranean clover is another pea-flower, which 

 solves the same problem in a different way by burying 

 its own seeds beneath the sod. And this wee creeping 

 bird's-foot, which like many of its small congeners, has 

 to fear the birds more than the sheep or cattle, avoids 

 opening its pod to shed its tiny beans by making it solid 



