NEWS OF SPRING 



trunk of the apple-trees to stop the ascent of the caterpillars. 

 This leads to the study of the defensive means employed 

 by the plants. In an excellent popular work, Les Plantes 

 originales, to which I refer the reader who wishes for fuller 

 details, M. Henri Coupin examines some of these quaint and 

 startling weapons. We have first the captivating question of 

 the thorns, concerning which M. Lothelier, a student at the 

 Sorbonne, has made a number of interesting experiments, re- 

 sulting in the conclusion that shade and damp tend to suppress 

 the prickly parts of the plants. On the other hand, whenever 

 the place in which it grows is dry and scorched by the sun, the 

 plant bristles and multiplies its spikes, as though it felt that, 

 as almost the sole survivor among the rocks or in the hot sand, 

 it is called upon to make a mighty effort to redouble its de- 

 fences against an enemy that no longer has a choice of victims 

 to prey upon. It is a remarkable fact, moreover, that, when 

 cultivated by man, most of the thorny plants gradually lay 

 aside their weapons, leaving the care of their safety to the 

 supernatural protector who has adopted them in his fenced 

 grounds.^ 



^ Among the plants that have ceased to defend themselves, the most striking case is 

 that of the Lettuce: 



"In its wild state," says the above-mentioned author, "if we break a stalk or a 

 leaf, we see a white juice exude from it, the latex, a substance formed of diflFerent mat- 



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