ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND. 41 



entire central part of the cucumber, in short (answering 

 to the seeds and pulp of a ripe melon), squirts out 

 elastically through the breach in the outer wall, leaving 

 the hollow shell behind as a mere empty windbag. 



Naturally, the squirting cucumber knows its own 

 business best, and is not without sufficient reasons of its 

 own for this strange and, to some extent, unmannerly 

 behaviour. By its queer trick of squirting, it manages 

 to kill at least two birds with one stone. For, in the 

 first place, the sudden elastic jump of the fruit frightens 

 away browsing animals, such as goats and cattle. Those 

 meditative ruminants are little accustomed to finding 

 shrubs or plants take the aggressive against them ; and 

 when they see a fruit that quite literally flies in their 

 faces of its own accord, they hesitate to attack the 

 uncanny vine which bristles with such magical and 

 almost miraculous defences. Moreover, the juice of the 

 squirting cucumber is bitter and nauseous, and if it gets 

 into the eyes or nostrils of man or beast, it impresses 

 itself on the memory by stinging like red pepper. So 

 the trick of squirting serves in a double way as a pro- 

 tection to the plant against the attacks of herbivorous 

 animals and other enemies. 



But that's not all. Even when no enemy is near, the 

 ripe fruits at last drop off of themselves, and scatter their 

 seeds elastically in every direction. This they do simply 

 in order to disseminate their kind in new and unoccupied 

 spots, where the seedlings will root and find an opening 

 in life for themselves. Observe, indeed, that the very 

 word ' disseminate ' implies a general vague recognition 

 of this principle of plant-life on the part of humanity. 



