DISPERSION. 311 



The name of monkey pot, as applied to these 

 fruits, is said to have arisen thus : " When the cup 

 of a Lecythis falls, its lid drops off, the seeds roll out, 

 and it then becomes a hard pot, with a narrow 

 mouth. These pots are used for catching monkeys. 

 Filled with sugar they are placed on the ground 

 which such animals frequent. The sugar attracts 

 the latter, who pick it out leisurely till they are 

 disturbed, when they insert the paw, grasp as much 

 sugar as it will hold, and endeavour to escape with 

 their prize. But their doubled fist being larger than 

 the mouth of the pot cannot be withdrawn, and the 

 monkeys tenaciously holding the sugar, run off with 

 a pot firmly enclosing one paw. This renders it im- 

 possible for them to escape from their pursuers by 

 climbing, and they are easily run down." * To the 

 credit of the monkeys, it may be added, that it is the 

 young and inexperienced that are caught in this 

 manner, and not the old and wary patriarchs, as 

 intimated by the proverb, common in South America, 

 " He is too old a monkey to be caught with a 

 Cabomba." 



The nearest resemblance we have in this country 

 to the structure of the fruits of the Lecythis are the 

 comparatively minute and insignificant little capsules 

 of the Pimpernel (Anagallis) and the Henbane. In 



1 "Gardener's Chronicle," December 28, 1861, p. 1,133. 



