128 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



fit the cockle to its place as a weed infesting 

 the wheat. The lychnis group, to which 

 this plant belongs, all incline to narrowness 

 of leaves, but I know of no other member 

 where leaves are so very slender as are those 

 of the cockle. I doubt not broader-leaved 

 ones -have been plucked from grain fields 

 in the earlier times, when fields were smaller 

 and grain was hand sown and hand gath- 

 ered. Those plants whose leaves inclined 

 to be slender more frequently escaped 

 notice, and were allowed to set their seeds. 

 Naturally their descendants had the nar- 

 rower leaved habit which in time became 

 universal. So perhaps man has uncon- 

 sciously helped the cockle to hide in the 

 wheat field. 



It is interesting too to realize how he has 

 taught the cockle to time its flowering so as 

 to coincide with the ripening of the wheat. 

 Whenever a flower matured too soon and 

 set its seed earlier than the grain did, those 

 seeds rattled out of the pod to the ground 

 and lay there when the grain was gathered. 

 Any flowers which were late in forming 



