intemperate Fungus—Oranges—Prickly pear and the monkey—Strong seeds—Bill-of-fare of certain birds—A wood-pigeon and beans—Ants and seeds—Bats, rats, bears, and baboons—The rise in weight of a Big Gooseberry—Mr. Gideon and the Wealthy Apple—Crossing fruits—Breadfruit and banana—Dates—Figs—Olives—Pineapples by the acre—Apples and pears—Home and Canadian orchards

240   CHAPTER XX
WANDERING FRUITS AND SEEDS Ships and stowaway seeds—Tidal drift—Sheep, broom, migrating birds—Crows and acorns—Ice—Squirrels—Long flight of birds—Seeds in mud—Martynia and lions—The wanderings of Xanthium—Cocoanut and South Sea Islands—Sedges and floods—Lichens of Arctic and Antarctic—Manna of Bible—The Tumble weeds of America—Catapult and sling fruits—Cow parsnips—Parachutes, shuttlecocks, and kites—Cotton—The use of hairs and wings—Monkey's Dinner-bell—Sheep-killing grasses 254   CHAPTER XXI
STORY OF THE CROPS Bloated and unhealthy plants—Oats of the Borderers, Norsemen, and Danes—Wheat as a wild plant—Barley—Rye—Where was the very first harvest?—Vine in the Caucasus—Indians sowing corn—Early weeds—Where did weeds live before cultivation?—Armies of weeds—Their cunning and ingenuity—Gardeners' feats—The Ideal Bean—Diseased pineapples—Raising beetroot and carrot—Story of the travels of Sugar-cane—Indian Cupid—Beetroot and Napoleon 269   CHAPTER XXII
PLANTS AND ANTS Meaning of Plant Life—Captive and domesticated germs—Solomon's observations denied by Buffon but confirmed by recent writers—Ants as keepers and germinators of corn—Ant fields—Ants growing mushrooms—Leaf-cutting ants—Plants which are guarded by insects—The African bush—Ants boarded by Acacias and by Imbauba trees—Ants kept in China and Italy—Cockchafer v. ant—Scale insects—A fungus which catches worms 281   CHAPTER XXIII
THE PERIL OF INSECTS The Phylloxera—French sport—Life history of the Phylloxera—Cockchafer grubs—Wireworm—The misunderstood crows—Dangerous sucklings of greenflies—"Sweat of heaven" and "Saliva of the stars"—A parasite of a parasite of a parasite—Buds—The apple-blossom weevil—Apple-sucker—The codlin moth and the ripening apple—The pear midge—A careless naturalist and his present of rare eggs—Leaf-miners—Birds without a stain upon their characters—Birds and man—Moats—Dust and mites—The homes of the mites—Buds, insect eggs, and parent birds flourishing together 290   CHAPTER XXIV
RUBBER, HEMP AND OPIUM Effects of opium—The poppy-plant and its latex—Work of the opium-gatherer—Where the opium poppy is grown—Haschisch of the Count of Monte Cristo—Heckling, scotching, and retting—Hempseed and bhang—Users of haschisch—Use of india-rubber—Why plants produce rubber—With the Indians in Nicaragua—The Congo Free State—Scarcity of rubber—Columbus and Torquemada—Macintosh—Gutta-percha 301   CHAPTER XXV
ON CLIMBING PLANTS Robin-run-the-Hedge—Bramble bushes—Climbing roses—Spiny, wiry stems of smilax—The weak young stem of a liane—The way in which stems revolve—The hop and its little harpoons—A climbing palm—Rapidity of turners—The effect of American life on them—Living bridges—Rope bridges in India—The common stitchwort—Tendrils—Their behaviour when stroked or tickled—Their sensibility—Their grasping power—The quickness with which they curve and their sense of weight—Charles Darwin—Reasonableness of plants—Corkscrew spirals—The pads of the Virginian Creeper—The ivy—Does it do harm?—Embracing roots—Tree ivy 313   CHAPTER XXVI
PLANTS WHICH PREY ON PLANTS The kinds of cannibals—Bacteria—Spring flowers—Pale, ghostly Wood-flowers—Their alliance with fungi—Gooseberries growing on trees—Orchid-hunting—The life of an orchid—The mistletoe—Balder the Beautiful—Druids-Mistletoe as a remedy—Its parasitic roots—The trees it prefers—The Cactus Loranthus—Yellow Rattle and Eyebright, or Milk-thief, and their root-suckers—Broomrape and toothwort—Their colour and tastes—The scales of the toothwort which catch animalcula—Sir Stamford Raffles—A flower a yard across—The Dodder—Its twining stem and sucker-roots—Parasites rare, degenerate and dangerously situated 327   CHAPTER XXVII
PLANTS ATTACKING ANIMALS Brittle Star v. algæ—Fungus v. meal-worm—Stag-headed caterpillars—Liverwort v. small insects—Natural flower-pots—Watercups of Bromeliads—Sarracenia and inquiring insects—An unfortunate centipede—Pitcher plants: their crafty contrivances—Blowflies defy them and spiders rob them—Bladderwort's traps which catch small fry—Hairs and their uses—Plants used as fly-papers—Butterwort v. midges—Its use as rennet—Sundew and its sensitive tentacles—Pinning down an insect—Suffocating and chloroforming the sundew—Venus' fly-trap which acts like a rat-trap—Have plants a nervous system? 340   CHAPTER XXVIII
MOSSES AND MOORS Peat-mosses and their