:::::::::=i: WALKS IN THE CACTUS COUNTRY ;*:::;■.::;: 



brittle and five-sided and as light as air. They re- 

 minded one in shape somewhat of the sea-jellies [Beroe) 

 which drift in the currents of tlie ocean. And the 

 simile is not confined to the exterior, for within liangs 

 a small round sac containing the tiny fiat brown seeds, 

 just as, in certain of the animal jelly-fishes, the pendu- 

 lous stomach is swung. Out of curiosity I counted the 

 seeds in one of these seed-vessels and found two hun- 

 dred and fifty-three. A single branch which I brought 

 home with seventy-nine globes would, therefore, scat- 

 ter some eighteen thousand fruit. The least touch or 



SEED-PODS 



••«<^ 49 ^" 



