A VERY INTELLIGENT PLANT 



281 



moor on such a warm summer morning, you will 

 hear, from time to time, little abrupt discharges 

 as if a succession of toy pistols were being con- 

 tinually fired off in the thicket all round you. 

 These noises are due to the bursting pods of 

 gorse, which go off one after another, and shed 

 their seeds piecemeal over a considerable area. 

 Should you 

 look in early 

 spring on the 

 bare spots 

 around a moor 

 or common, 

 you will find 

 gorse seedlings 

 by the thou- 

 sand, all fight- 

 ing it out 

 among them- 

 selves, and all 

 trying their 

 best to occupy 

 the uncovered 

 spaces in the neighbourhood of their parents. 



And here the wonder of their lives begins all 

 over again. For while the gorse was old and 

 woody, it grew like gorse, all stern and prickly. 

 But as soon as the young seedlings start afresh in 

 life, they seem to forget their parents : they revert 

 once more to the old trefoil condition. All young 

 plants and animals, at least in their embryonic 

 stages, show this strange tendency to throw back 



NO. 12. THE POD, AFTER DISCHARGING 

 THE BEANS ELASTICALLY. 



