10 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



than those of hemp. When twisted tightly they 

 make a little cord that I find it impossible to break 

 with my hands. Had they been longer, the Indian 

 would surely have used them to make his bow- 

 strings and all the other strings he required. One 

 could hang himself with a small cord of them. (In 

 South America, Humboldt saw excellent cordage 

 made by the Indians from the petioles of the Chi- 

 quichiqui palm.) Nature has determined that these 

 buttons should stay on. In order that the seeds of 

 this tree may germinate, it is probably necessary 

 that they be kept dry during the winter, and reach 

 the ground after the season of warmth and moisture 

 is fully established. In May, just as the leaves 

 and the new balls are emerging, at the touch of a 

 warm, moist south wind, these spherical packages 

 suddenly go to pieces — explode, in fact, like tiny 

 bombshells that were fused to carry to this point 

 — and scatter their seeds to the four winds. They 

 yield at the same time a fine pollen-like dust that 

 one would suspect played some part in fertilizing 

 the new balls, did not botany teach him otherwise. 

 At any rate, it is the only deciduous tree I know 

 of that does not let go the old seed till the new is 

 well on the way. It is plain why the sugar- berry- 

 tree or lotus holds its drupes all winter: it is in 

 order that the birds may come and sow the seed. 

 The berries are like small gravel stones with a 

 sugar coating, and a bird will not eat them till he 

 is pretty hard pressed, but in late fall and winter 

 the robins, cedar-birds, and bluebirds devour them 



