New Walks in Old Ways 



as big as a cornstalk, and standing 

 fully seven feet in height, bearing 

 about one hundred well-filled seedbags. 

 Note, first of all, that the plant itself 

 is armed at every point with well- 

 sharpened needles for its own protec- 

 tion. Observe then the prickly armor- 

 plate so perfectly over-lapped around 

 the seed pod, and when your knife has 

 let you inside you will see at once that 

 whoever planned the propagation of 

 this plant, not only hedged in the 

 bright, corn-colored seeds with every 

 possible precaution to provide com- 

 plete security, but furnished each one 

 with, say, twelve to twenty silken 

 fibres, each perhaps an inch in length, 

 which, when the fully ripened grains 

 finally burst their bounds, open out 

 like a flower in full bloom that the 

 lightest breeze may bear them away to 

 spread the species. These seed grains 

 themselves are hard as good wheat, 

 capable of taking care of themselves, 

 one would say, under almost any cir- 

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