. The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution;. Botany. DISPERSAL BY ANIMALS. 875 the fruits developed upon it. Again, in Specularia falcata, Valerianella echinata, Cornucopia cucullata, and Ceratocephalus falcatus (see %. 478 ") the fruits do not sever themselves from the stems when their claws become attached to animals, but the entire plant is uprooted and carried away. A similar phenomenon is observed when a fruiting plant of Setcm-ia verticillata is touched by one of the larger birds or some other animal. The fruits of this Grass are wrapped in
. The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution;. Botany. DISPERSAL BY ANIMALS. 875 the fruits developed upon it. Again, in Specularia falcata, Valerianella echinata, Cornucopia cucullata, and Ceratocephalus falcatus (see %. 478 ") the fruits do not sever themselves from the stems when their claws become attached to animals, but the entire plant is uprooted and carried away. A similar phenomenon is observed when a fruiting plant of Setcm-ia verticillata is touched by one of the larger birds or some other animal. The fruits of this Grass are wrapped in awnless glumes and surrounded by involucral bristles furnished with very sharp barbs (see figs. 47715 and 4771«). When the bristles get fastened to an animal, not only the fruiting spike, but often a piece of the haulm as well, is dragged away, and sometimes the entire plant is uprooted and taken ofi". Such fortuitous appendages are very troublesome to the animal, and are got rid of as soon as possible. In many instances this is achieved without great difficulty by rubbing the coat against fixed objects, or by using the feet, snout, or beak, as the case may be, to disembarrass the body. Sometimes, however, the sharp claws and barbs of the fruits are so firmly imbedded «s»feS. f^- Fig. 480. -Fruits witii needle-like spines. 1 Pedalium Murcx, s Trihulus orientalis. or entangled in the hair or feathers that their extrication is attended with much difficulty and sufiering. A mode of fruit-dispersion involving still greater pain to animals is that which is accomplished by means of straight, smooth prickles projecting from the fruit, and so situated as either to bore into the foot of any animal that treads upon it, or to stick into the coat of one that merely brushes by. Two groups of these fruits may be distin- guished. The first group comprises those which lie loose upon the ground when they are ripe. To it belong Acicarpha, Geratocarpus, Salsola, and Spi/nacia, in which th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1895
