INTELLIGENCE OF FLOWERS 



Certain plants, among others the Boraginece, supply the 

 place of thorns with very hard bristles. Others, such as the 

 Nettle, add poison. Others, the Geranium, the Mint, the 

 Rue, steep themselves in powerful odours to keep off the ani- 

 mals. But the strangest are those which defend themselves 

 mechanically. I will mention only the Horsetail, which sur- 

 rounds itself with a veritable armour of microscopic grains 

 of silex. Moreover, almost all the Graminea, in order to 

 discourage the gluttony of the slugs and snails, add lime to 

 their tissues. 



lo 



Before entering upon the study of the complicated forms 

 of apparatus rendered necessary by cross-fertilization, among 

 the thousands of nuptial ceremonies that prevail in our gar- 

 dens let us mention the ingenious ideas of some very simple 



ters which vigorously defend the plant against the attacks of the slugs. On the other 

 hand, in the cultivated species derived from the former, the latex is almost missing, 

 for which reason the plant, to the despair of the gardeners, is no longer able to resist 

 and allows the slugs to eat it." 



It is nevertheless right to add that this latex is rarely lacking except in the young 

 plants, whereas it becomes quite abundant when the Lettuce begins to "cabbage" and 

 when it runs to seed. Now it is at the commencement of its life, at the budding of 

 its first, tender leaves, that the plant most needs to defend itself. One is inclined to 

 think that the cultivated Lettuce loses its head a little, so to speak, and no longer knows 

 exactly where it stands. 



[47] 



