2O8 SHARP EYES 



turned out their proper willow fruits in the "cottony 

 seeds" of early spring. What, then, is this spurious 

 fruit which we now see everywhere among the leafless 

 dwarf willows? 



Look ! Yonder chickadee can tell us all about it. 

 He knows the confusing botanist that would make a 

 pine out of a willow. See ! He alights upon a branch, 

 and now inserts his bill at the apex of the cone, and 

 probes the interior. Presently the probe is withdrawn, 

 and with it the tiny expert who is responsible for this 

 mischievous confusion a small orange- colored grub, 

 which has been sleeping and luxuriating for weeks 

 within the hollow core of the growing cone. It is per- 

 fectly plain from an examination of a section of this 

 cone, with its layer on layer of leafy scales, its hollow 

 cavity at the centre, and of course no sign of any seed, 

 that it was designed merely as a home for this plump 

 larva. 



And why, then, has this willow been so accommodat- 

 ing as to give up its own plans, and sprout this tiled 

 domicile for a yellow grub to which it is under no obli- 

 gation ? 



If we gather a few of the cones and keep them until 

 next spring, we shall see the real magician who has vou- 

 dooed the willow a tiny fly (Cecidomyia strobiloides of 

 the naturalists), that tampers with the willow buds of 

 spring, and with some magical medicine humors it into 

 thus taking care of its young ones. This cone is one of 

 thousands of similar gall growths upon various plants, 

 such as the rosy ball on the cinque-foil, the crimson 

 sponge on the sweetbrier, or the swollen tumors on 

 the high blackberry stems, with their hundreds of 

 squirming tenants, all of the same origin, caused by the 



