UNDER THE MAPLES 



berry bushes? or the rose? Our purple-flowering 

 raspberry has no prickles, and thrives as well as 

 any. The spines on the blackberry and raspberry 

 do not save them from browsing cattle, nor their 

 fruit from the birds. In fact, as I have said, the 

 service of the birds is needed to sow their seeds. 

 The devil's club of Alaska is untouchable, it is so 

 encased in a spiny armor; but what purpose the 

 armor serves is a mystery. We know that hard 

 conditions of soil and climate will bring thorns 

 on seedling pear-trees and plum-trees, but we 

 cannot know why. 



The yucca or Spanish bayonet and the century- 

 plant, or American aloe (Agave americana), are 

 thorny and spiny; they are also very woody and 

 fibrous; yet nothing eats them or could eat them. 

 They are no more edible than cordwood or hemp 

 rcpes. This fact alone settles the defense question 

 about spines. 



V. SEA-DOGS 



THERE is a bit of live natural history out here in 

 the sea in front of me that is new and interesting. 

 A bunch of about a dozen hair seals have their 

 rendezvous in the unstable waves just beyond the 

 breakers, and keep together there week after week. 

 To the naked eye they seem like a group of children 

 sitting there on a hidden bench of rock, undis- 

 turbed by the waves that sweep over them. Their 



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