The Evolution of Arms and Armor. 171 



much is all this like the Imman mother keeping her darling 

 boy inconspicuous at home during the first years of his 

 life, but who, when the time comes for sending him out into 

 the world to get his own living, takes off his old homespun, 

 dresses him up in his best clothes, and puts a little money 

 in his pocket, the sinews of war with which he is to pay 

 his way to a new home and begin his battle of life, and 

 beneath this, right around his heart, the armor of a Bible, 

 or of principles and good advice, to keep him in his inex- 

 perience from being at once the world's prey. Fruits like 

 those of the hickory-tree, whose sweetness is wholly in 

 their meat, are provided with a bitter outside covering, 

 which, instead of growing bright and eatable with their 

 ripening, simply opens, when, in the frosty Autumn, they 

 drop from their parent tree, exposing a white inside shell 

 very conspicuous for boys and squirrels to see and gather, 

 but at the same time a veritable fort, built with all manner 

 of intricate casements, salient angles, and retreating walls, 

 that only nut-crackers and the sharpest teeth can storm and 

 break through. The cocoa-tree, having a large heavy nut 

 whose hard shell would be liable to crack open in falling 

 from its high limbs to the ground, wraps it up before-hand 

 in a soft cushion-like matting, as its defense against the 

 hard earth. And more ingenious still, the cashew-nut, 

 growing in tropical climates and much loved by monkeys, 

 has in its immediate covering a pungent, acrid acid, which, 

 touched, burns not only their tongues but also even their 

 paws, so that not even a hungry monkey, after one experi- 

 ence with its armor, can be tempted to fool with it again ; 

 but, as an allurement to secure their aid in its dispersion, it 

 has at the end of its stalk, and independent of the nut it- 

 self, a most delicious edible tuber, which they can have and 

 do have at the cost only of giving the real fruit a chance to 

 grow, a contrivance equal to that of the old lady who 

 presented the boy, whose integrity she was not quite ready 

 to trust, with a roll of candy for carrying her package of 

 sweet cakes safe to a neighbor, but at the same time wrote 

 on its cover, " Wallop him well if you find it opened." 



What is the result of Nature's experiment here as to the 

 two ways of arming her creatures ? As told in the broad 

 pages of palseontology, it is the same as in her animal king- 

 dom, the gradual evolution of its inner and liner forms 

 out of and over those which are outward and coarse ; the 



