WILD THYME. 181 



Unless you were in the secret you would take 

 it for granted that the calyx was empty, and 

 had either shed its nutlets or else never con- 

 tained any at all. 



Now this is exactly the impression which 

 the plant wishes to produce ; or, to 'put it 

 more correctly, it is because the plant has 

 thus succeeded in producing a wrong impres- 

 sion on the minds of birds and insects that it 

 has acquired this false bottom of interlacing 

 hairs, and has so survived in the struggle for 

 existence. Why the wild thyme finds such 

 deception pay is simple enough to under- 

 stand. Here close at hand is a bit of mouse- 

 ear chickweed, well in fruit. The plant is 

 covered by numbers of little capsules, each 

 containing a dozen seeds or more ; but if you 

 cut them open, you will find almost every 

 capsule, in this district at least, has been 

 invaded by a perfect plague of little red or 

 orange worms, which devour most of the 

 seeds before they arrive at maturity. Hence 

 the chickweed, being unprotected against 



