. Foundations of botany. Fig. 243. — Spiny Leaves of Barberry. animal is rarely, if ever, seen to molest them. Still otherplants, like the knotgrass and cinquefoil of our dooryards,are doubly safe, from their growing so close to the groundas to be hard to graze and from their woody and unpala-table nature. The date-palm (which can easily be raisedfrom the seed in the schoolroom or the laboratory) is anexcellent instance of the same uneatable quality, foundin a tropical or sub-tropical plant. HOW PLANTS PROTECT THEMSELVES 349 417. Plants with Weapons for Defense.^ — Multitudesof plants, which m
. Foundations of botany. Fig. 243. — Spiny Leaves of Barberry. animal is rarely, if ever, seen to molest them. Still otherplants, like the knotgrass and cinquefoil of our dooryards,are doubly safe, from their growing so close to the groundas to be hard to graze and from their woody and unpala-table nature. The date-palm (which can easily be raisedfrom the seed in the schoolroom or the laboratory) is anexcellent instance of the same uneatable quality, foundin a tropical or sub-tropical plant. HOW PLANTS PROTECT THEMSELVES 349 417. Plants with Weapons for Defense.^ — Multitudesof plants, which might otherwise have been subject to theattacks of grazing or browsing animals, have acquiredwhat have with reason been called weapons. Shrubs andtrees not infrequently produce sharp-pointed branches,familiar in our own crab-apple, wild plum, thorn trees,and above all in the honey locust (Fig. 34), whose formida-ble thorns often branch in a very complicated man-ner. Thorns, which arereally modified leaves, arevery per
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