218 MYSTERIES OF THE FLOWERS 



CACTI- S 

 Thorns and Hook 



nate, in the jNIalay Archi- 

 pelago, from another local- 

 ity. In the hairy tail of 

 the buffalo were tangled 

 numerous needle-like fruits 

 of a beard-grass, the An- 

 dropogon acicularis. These 

 seeds took root in their new 

 environment and the beard- 

 grass soon spread over the 

 entire island. As I was 

 writing the present chapter 

 I was invited to inspect a beautiful specimen of 

 a cactus which had just arrived in town from 

 the JNIexican Border. I found a few rather 

 inconspicuous flowers, crowning a huge, cor- 

 rugated dome, green, fleshy, and succulent. The 

 ribs or fins of the dome were bristling with 

 rosettes of fierce spines, and on each rosette ap- 

 peared a cruel hook. The spines were for defence, 

 and would discourage the approach of any browsing 

 animal, but the hooks were for another purpose, 

 and were not so cruel as they seemed. They were 

 much longer than the spines and could fasten them- 

 selves into the hairy coat of a passing animal, and, 

 holding fast, would pull away from the parent 

 stem, bringing with them a little fragment of the 



