444 



Marvels of the Universe 



p>it forth later. These 

 seed-leaves are, in effect, 

 a couple of pockets filled 

 with as much food as the 

 bab}' plant requires until 

 it has developed the be- 

 ginnings of a root sj'stem 

 and a leaf or two that can 

 gather food from the at- 

 mosphere. Not so with 

 the Dodder. It comes of 

 what the Eugenists would 

 call " degenerate "stock, 

 the thriftless, unemploy- 

 able class, doomed from 

 their birth to be parasites 

 and criminals. The Dod- 

 der is one of them. For 

 ages all its ancestors have 

 got their living at the 

 expense of the industrious 

 plants and never done a 

 hand's-turn to provide 

 their own food. Of course, 

 if you go far enough back 

 you will find honest and 

 industrious ancestors. 



The Dodder seed, on 

 germination, produces a 

 (Natural size.) mere thread without any 



food-provision. That thread bends from its base and sweeps its limited horizon, its tip bo.xing the 

 compass against the sun. If during these revolutions it chances to touch against a suitable plant, 

 its future is assured ; if not, it dies within two or three days of its birth. But if it touches the 

 stem of a furze- or heath-plant the thread at once begins to twine round it, from north to west or 

 south to east, and makes its hold secure by means of little suckers. Then it drives root-like tubes 

 into its victim, and through these sucks as much of its victim's juices as it requires. It revels and 

 riots in the good things of plant-life, without troubling to inquire whether the poor furze can spare 

 it all. Its threads lengthen rapidly, and before long it indulges in a display of flowers. 



These flowers, if examined curiously, will reveal the honourable stock from which the Dodder's 

 degenerate ancestors came. It is the beautiful family of the Bindweeds — the Convolvulus of our 

 cornfields and hedges, the Morning Glory of our gardens — for the flowers, though diminutive, bear 

 all the family features. 



I'li,^lo hii-\ 



[E. SIf/i, F.L.S. 



THE DODDER. 



The fine threads are the leafless stems of this plant-parasite. In this common species, 

 which attacks heath and furze, the threads are crimson . in others they are pink or yellow. 



SEA GOSS.^MER 



BY RICHARD KERR, F.G.S., F.R..\.S. 



" Sea Gossamer " is an apt description of these frail creatures which float in the waters and spread 

 out their fairy meshes of fine, transparent threads. So beautiful are these tubular jelly-fishes, 

 and so unlike any other living organism, that they defy comparison, though the description of an 



