302 



FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



The " cleavers," or " goose - grass " (Galium 

 aparine), found in every hedge and thicket has small 

 fruits which are densely covered with minute hooks, 

 and transportation is rendered easy. It is in warmer 

 climates, where hooked fruits attain a larger dimen- 

 sion, that they present a formidable appearance. 

 In one of these (Martynia diandra) the pair of 

 hooks are very sharp and rigid, the points enter- 

 ing the flesh like a needle ; but even these are 

 exceeded by another species (Proboscidea Jussieui), 



which the late Frank 

 Buckland was wont to 

 declare must have been 

 created for the express 

 purpose of sticking to the 

 tails of the wild horses 

 that roam the plains of 

 South America. The 

 horns in this species 

 are often five or six inches in length, and the aspect 

 may be readily imagined from our reduced figure 

 (fig. 58). The same family contains the Grapnel plants, 

 of which one species [Harpagophytum leptocarpuiri) is 

 found in Madagascar, and another in Africa (Harpa- 

 gophytum procumbens). The latter, and most effec- 

 tive of the two, although least formidable in appear- 

 ance, has the capsule armed with a number of rigid 

 woody thorns, standing out in all directions, their 



57.— Hooked fruits of 

 Martynia diandra. 



