Friends and Foes 305 



of formidable size, and by hairs, whether sticky or 

 stinging. 



Certain caterpillars are proof against the stings of 

 the nettle ; but as a rule this plant is very carefully let 

 alone ; and such grasses and sedges as are unpleasantly 

 wiry are also avoided by cattle, unless they are driven 

 to eat them by hunger. The Alpine fescue-grass is so 

 extremely stiff that its needle-like points prick the 

 noses of unwary animals, and no doubt in this way it 

 escapes being eaten ; but, on the other hand, it is ex- 

 terminated wholesale by the herdsmen of the Alps, 

 who burn it where it occurs in large quantities. In 

 the ordinary course of nature, however, where man 

 does not interfere, it is no doubt very effectually pro- 

 tected. 



Prickles and thorns are among the most efficient 

 guards a plant can have, and are often positively for- 

 midable weapons of defence. One has only to think 

 of the strong, stout thorns of the rose, and the long, 

 sharp ones of the gooseberry-bush to realize that it 

 would be dangerous for any animal to attempt to make 

 a meal of them. The sharp little prickles of the rasp- 

 berry, too, must make it, one would think, anything 

 but pleasant eating to most creatures, though donkeys 

 will munch raspberry-canes as well as thistles. 



But all these small thorns, sharply as they can 

 wound, are a mere trifle compared with those which 

 protect many foreign plants and trees until they have 

 grown beyond the reach of cattle. There is a palm, 

 for instance, in Ceylon, whose trunk is covered for the 

 first six or eight feet with a coating of thorns so closely 

 set together that the bark is hardly visible ; and there 

 is also a climbing plant, very common in the jungles, 



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