. Two bird-lovers in Mexico . eresting objects for the botanists werethe many curious seed-pods of the weeds and otherplants hereabouts, from the great fruit clusters of thecastor-oil plants to the tiniest of seed-plumes. As we rambled through the trenches we sometimesbrushed against a mass of large golden globes, strungclose together along the leafless twigs of the plant — «4 48 ^ :::::::::*: WALKS IN THE CACTUS COUNTRY m::::::::: brittle and five-sided and as light as air. Thev re-minded one in shape somewhat of the sea-jellies {Beroe)which drift in the currents of the ocean. And thesimile i
. Two bird-lovers in Mexico . eresting objects for the botanists werethe many curious seed-pods of the weeds and otherplants hereabouts, from the great fruit clusters of thecastor-oil plants to the tiniest of seed-plumes. As we rambled through the trenches we sometimesbrushed against a mass of large golden globes, strungclose together along the leafless twigs of the plant — «4 48 ^ :::::::::*: WALKS IN THE CACTUS COUNTRY m::::::::: brittle and five-sided and as light as air. Thev re-minded one in shape somewhat of the sea-jellies {Beroe)which drift in the currents of the ocean. And thesimile is not confined to the exterior, for within liangsa small round sac containing the tiny flat brown seeds,just as, in certain of the animal jelly-fishes, the pendu-lous stomach is swung. Out of curiosity I counted theseeds in one of these seed-vessels and found two hun-dred and fifty-three. A single branch which I broughthome with seventv-nine globes would, therefore, scat-ter some eighteen thousand fruit. The least touch or. SEED-PODS :::r.::::*< TWO BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO j*---: breath of air sets each of these many seeds vibratingwitliin their hollow spheres, producing a sweet, siftingtinkle, comparable to nothing I have ever heard inNature. In the Guadalajara ditches we began to realize thatMexico is a land of thorns and spines. Indeed the seedsare about equally divided between those furnished withhooks or spines, and tliose intended to be wafted awayby the wind. One low, spreading bush has a doublechance for distributing its seeds. When it dries up, thestalk breaks oil almost at the first l)reath of air, andthe light, tliorny mass, more or less globular in shape,is rolled and tunil)led far across the fiekls. Severaltimes a number of these buslies blew toward us so rap-idly that we could not escape them, althougli we knewfrom experience that mucli time and patience would benecessary to free our clothing from the barbed andrebarbed burrs. How we wished for handbooks to na
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