306 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



fruit the bull's horns are replaced by acute spines. 

 The latter is cultivated to such an extent that it is 

 said to constitute a large portion of the food of the 

 inhabitants, and yields about £ 12,000 a year in 

 revenue. Moorcroft asserts that from 96,000 to 

 128,000 ass loads are yielded by the lake of Ooller. 1 

 There is still another species, with rather smaller 

 fruits, in which four long rigid spines are placed 

 nearly in the same plane, at right angles to each 

 other (Trapa quadrispinosd). Had they been pro- 

 duced on land instead of water, it might fairly have 

 been assumed that these appendages would have 

 assisted in dispersion, but under the existing circum- 

 stances their utility is not so evident. 



The suspension or retention of seeds in a favour- 

 able position, until in a fit condition to germinate, 

 has been observed in some cases in a manner so 

 marked as to suggest a special contrivance for the 

 perpetuation of the species. A provision of this 

 nature has been recorded in a plant of the sedge 

 family, native of New Zealand (Gahnia xanthophylld), 

 which consists in the filaments of the stamens, which 

 are at first short, and afterwards greatly lengthen 

 themselves. When the ovary is ripened so as to 

 form the nut containing the seed, it is detached from 

 the investing scales, and would fall to the ground if 



1 Royle's " Illustrations of Himalayan Botany," p. 211. 



