Foliage eaten — Flowers left. 37 



hemisphaericum, Qaya simplex, HeAysarum, obscurum, 

 Trifolium alpinum, Ranunculus glacialis and Senecio 

 doronicum, partly bitten off, but the flowers all left un- 

 injured. Eound the herdsmen's huts one often sees 

 great bush-like plants of Senecio cordatus, the foliage of 

 which has been largely attacked by cows, sheep, and 

 goats, whilst the flower-stems have been left intact. 

 So along the roads where the cattle have gone to pasture, 

 one may notice how the leaves of yarrow, the large 

 flowered campanula, scabious, mullein, and similar 

 plants, have been eaten off, while the greater part of 

 their blossoms have been left unhurt. Parasitical 

 plants and saprophytes, which have no green leaves, 

 such as Orobanche, Neottia, Monotropa, Cuscuta, and 

 Lathreea, are never touched by grazing animals. Many 

 similar instances might be added. 



A curious fact may here be noticed. In cases 

 where the flowers are so intermixed with the leaves, 

 or so close to them, that destruction of the one 

 involves destruction of the other, the leaves even are 

 avoided by the animals. For example, the Alchemilla 

 vulgaris of our Alps, the little blossoms of which are 

 imbedded among the large green leaves, is never 

 touched, though growing in spots frequented by grazing 

 animals.'' 



^ In many Bporiferou3 plants also the organs of reproduction 

 are surrounded by leaves, and are thus protected from grazing 

 animals. Ferns and mosses, for instance, are never eaten by such 

 animals. 



