382 



rOUKDATIONS OP BOTANY 



the caljx, sometimes from an involucre. Their office is 

 to attach the fruit to the hair or fur of passing animals. 

 Often, as in sticktights (Fig. 272), the hooks are compara- 

 tively weak, but in other cases, as in the cocklebur (Fig. 

 272), and still more in the Martynia, the fruit oi- which 

 in the green condition is much used for pickles, the 

 hooks are exceedingly strong. Cockleburs can hardly be 

 removed from the tails of horses and cattle, into which 



I II HI 



Pio. 271. — I'hree Fruits adapted for Dispersal by the Shaking Action of the Wind. 

 I, celandine ; II, pea ; III, jimson weed (Datwra). 



they have become matted, without cutting out all the 

 hairs to which they are fastened. 



A curious case of distribution of this Idnd occurred 

 in the island of Ternate, in the Malay Archipelago. A 

 buffalo with his hair stuck full of the needle-like fruits of 

 a grass 1 was sent as a present to the so-called King of 

 Ternate. Scattered from the hair of this single animal, 

 the grass soon spread over the whole island. 



1 Andropogon aciciUaris. 



