Naturally, the squirting cucumber knows its own business best, and is not without sufficient reasons of its own for this strange and, to some extent, unmannerly behaviour. By its queer trick of squirting, it manages to kill at least two birds with one stone. For, in the first place, the sudden elastic9 jump of the fruit frightens away browsing13 animals, such as goats and cattle. Those meditative14 ruminants are little accustomed to finding shrubs15 or plants take the aggressive against them; and when they see a fruit that quite literally16 flies in their faces of its own accord, they hesitate to attack the uncanny vine which bristles17 with such magical and almost miraculous18 defences. Moreover, the juice of the squirting cucumber is bitter and nauseous, and if it gets into the eyes or nostrils19 of man or beast, it impresses itself on the memory by stinging like red pepper. So the trick of squirting serves in a double way as a protection to the plant against the attacks of herbivorous animals and other enemies.
But that's not all. Even when no enemy is near, the ripe fruits at last drop off of themselves, and scatter5 their seeds elastically in every direction. This they do simply in order to disseminate20 their kind in new and unoccupied spots, where the seedlings21 will root and find an opening in life for themselves. Observe, indeed, that the very word 'disseminate' implies a general vague recognition of this principle of plant-life on the part of humanity. It means, etymologically22, to scatter seed; and it points to the fact that everywhere in nature seeds are scattered23 broadcast, infinite pains being taken by the mother-plant for their general diffusion24 over wide areas of woodland, plain, or prairie.
Let us take as examples a single little set of instances, familiar to everybody, but far commoner in the world at large than the inhabitants of towns are at all aware of: I mean, the winged seeds, that fly about freely in the air by means of feathery hairs or gossamer25, like thistle-down and dandelion. Of these winged types we have many hundred varieties in England alone. All the willow-herbs, for example, have such feathery seeds (or rather fruits) to help them on their way through life; and one kind, the beautiful pink rose-bay, flies about so readily, and over such wide spaces of open country, that the plant is known to farmers in America as fireweed, because it always springs up at once over whole square miles of charred26 and smoking soil after every devastating27 forest fire. It travels fast, for it travels like Ariel. In much the same way, the coltsfoot grows on all new English railway banks, because its winged seeds are wafted28 everywhere in myriads29 on the winds of March. All the willows30 and poplars have also winged seeds: so have the whole vast tribe of hawkweeds, groundsels, ragworts, thistles, fleabanes, cat's-ears, dandelions, and lettuces32. Indeed, one may say roughly, there are very few plants of any size or importance in the economy of nature which don't deliberately33 provide, in one way or another, for the dispersal and dissemination34 of their fruits or seedlings.
Why is this? Why isn't the plant content just to let its grains or berries drop quietly on to the soil beneath, and there shift for themselves as best they may on their own resources?
The answer is a more profound one than you would at first imagine. Plants discovered the grand principle of the rotation35 of crops long before man did. The farmer now knows that if he sows wheat or turnips36 too many years running on the same plot, he 'exhausts the soil,' as we say—deprives it of certain special mineral or animal constituents37 needful for that particular crop, and makes the growth of the plant, therefore, feeble or even impossible. To avoid this misfortune, he lets the land lie fallow, or varies his crops from year to year according to a regular and deliberate cycle. Well, natural selection forced the same discovery upon the plants themselves long before the farmer had dreamed of its existence. For plants, being, in the strictest sense, 'rooted to the spot,' absolutely require that all their needs should be supplied quite locally. Hence, from the very beginning, those plants which scattered their seeds widest throve the best; while those which merely dropped them on the ground under their own shadow, and on soil exhausted38 by their own previous demands upon it, fared ill in the struggle for life against their more discursive39 competitors. The result has been that in the long run few species have survived, except those which in one way or another arranged beforehand for the dispersal of their seeds and fruits over fresh and unoccupied areas of plain or hillside.
I don't, of course, by any means intend to assert that seeds always do it by the simple device of wings or feathery projections40. Every variety of plan or dodge41 or expedient42 has been adopted in turn to secure the self-same end; and provided only it succeeds in securing it, any variety of them all is equally satisfactory. One might parallel it with the case of hatching birds' eggs. Most birds sit upon their eggs themselves, and supply the necessary warmth from their own bodies. But any alternative plan that attains43 the same end does just as well. The felonious cuckoo drops her foundlings unawares in another bird's nest: the ostrich44 trusts her unhatched offspring to the heat of the burning desert sand: and the Australian brush-turkeys, with vicarious maternal45 instinct, collect great mounds46 of decaying and fermenting47 leaves and rubbish, in which they deposit their eggs to be artificially incubated, as it were, by the slow heat generated in the process of putrefaction48. Just in the same way, we shall see in the case of seeds that any method of dispersion will serve the plant's purpose equally well, provided only it succeeds in carrying a few of the young seedlings to a proper place in which they may start fair at last in the struggle for existence.
As in the case of the fertilization of flowers, so in that of the dispersal of seeds, there are two main ways in which the work is effected—by animals and by wind-power. I will not insult the intelligence of the reader at the present time of day by telling him that pollen49 is usually transferred from blossom to blossom in one or other of these two chief ways—it is carried on the heads or bodies of bees and other honey-seeking insects, or else it is wafted on the wings of the wind to the sensitive surface of a sister-flower. So, too, seeds are for the most part either dispersed51 by animals or blown about by the breezes of heaven to new situations. These are the two most obvious means of locomotion52 provided by nature; and it is curious to see that they have both been utilized53 almost equally by plants, alike for their pollen and their seeds, just as they have been utilized by man for his own purposes on sea or land, in ship, or windmill, or pack-horse, or carriage.
There are two ways in which animals may be employed to disperse50 seeds—voluntarily and involuntarily. They may be compelled to carry them against their wills: or they may be bribed55 and cajoled and flattered into doing the plant's work for it in return for some substantial advantage or benefit the plant confers upon them. The first plan is the one adopted by burrs and cleavers56. These adhesive57 fruits are like the man who buttonholes you and won't be shaken off: they are provided with little curved hooks or bent58 and barbed hairs which catch upon the wool of sheep, the coat of cattle, or the nether59 integuments of wayfaring60 humanity, and can't be got rid of without some little difficulty. Most of them, you will find on examination, belonged to confirmed hedgerow or woodside plants: they grow among bushes or low scrub, and thickets61 of gorse or bramble. Now, to such plants as these, it is obviously useful to have adhesive fruits and seeds: for when sheep or other animals get them caught in their coats, they carry them away to other bushy spots, and there, to get rid of the annoyance62 caused by the foreign body, scratch them off at once against some holly-bush or blackthorn. You may often find seeds of this type sticking on thorns as the nucleus63 of a little matted mass of wool, so left by the sheep in the very spots best adapted for the free growth of their vigorous seedlings.
Even among plants which trust to the involuntary services of animals in dispersing64 their seeds, a great many varieties of detail may be observed on close inspection65. For example, in hound's-tongue and goose-grass, two of the best-known instances among our common English weeds, each little nut is covered with many small hooks, which make it catch on firmly by several points of attachment66 to passing animals. These are the kinds we human beings of either sex oftenest find clinging to our skirts or trousers after a walk in a rabbit-warren. But in herb-bennet and avens each nut has a single long awn, crooked67 near the middle with a very peculiar68 S-shaped joint69, which effectually catches on to the wool or hair, but drops at the elbow after a short period of withering71. Sometimes, too, the whole fruit is provided with prehensile72 hooks, while sometimes it is rather the individual seeds themselves that are so accommodated. Oddest of all is the plan followed by the common burdock. Here, an involucre or common cup-shaped receptacle of hooked bracts surrounds an entire head of purple tubular flowers, and each of these flowers produces in time a distinct fruit; but the hooked involucre contains the whole compound mass, and, being pulled off bodily by a stray sheep or dog, effects the transference of the composite lot at once to some fitting place for their germination73.
Those plants, on the other hand, which depend rather, like London hospitals, upon the voluntary system, produce that very familiar form of edible74 capsule which we commonly call in the restricted sense a fruit or berry. In such cases, the seed-vessel is usually swollen75 and pulpy76: it is stored with sweet juices to attract the birds or other animal allies, and it is brightly coloured so as to advertise to their eyes the presence of the alluring77 sugary foodstuff78. These instances, however, are now so familiar to everybody that I won't dwell upon them at any length. Even the degenerate79 schoolboy of the present day, much as he has declined from the high standard set forth80 by Macaulay, knows all about the way the actual seed itself is covered (as in the plum or the cherry) by a hard stony81 coat which 'resists the action of the gastric82 juice' (so physiologists83 put it, with their usual frankness), and thus passes undigested through the body of its swallower. All I will do here, therefore, is to note very briefly84 that some edible fruits, like the two just mentioned, as well as the apricot, the peach, the nectarine, and the mango, consist of a single seed with its outer covering; in others, as in the raspberry, the blackberry, the cloudberry, and the dew-berry, many seeds are massed together, each with a separate edible pulp; in yet others, as in the gooseberry, the currant, the grape, and the whortleberry, several seeds are embedded85 within the fruit in a common pulpy mass; and in others again, as in the apple, pear, quince, and medlar, they are surrounded by a quantity of spongy edible flesh. Indeed, the variety that prevails among fruits in this respect almost defies classification: for sometimes, as in the mulberry, the separate little fruits of several distinct flowers grow together at last into a common berry: sometimes, as in a fig86, the general flower-stalk of several tiny one-seeded blossoms forms the edible part: and sometimes, as in the strawberry, the true little nuts or fruits appear as mere specks87 or dots on the bloated surface of the swollen and overgrown stem, which forms the luscious88 morsel89 dear to the human palate.
Yet in every case it is interesting to observe that, while the seeds which depend for dispersion upon the breeze are easily detached from the parent plant and blown about by every wind of doctrine90, the seeds or fruits which depend for their dispersion upon birds or animals always, on the contrary, hang on to their native boughs91 to the very last, till some unconscious friend pecks them off and devours93 them. Haws, rose-hips, and holly-berries will wither70 and wilt94 on the tree in mild winters, because they can't drop off of themselves without the aid of birds, while the birds are too well supplied with other food to care for them. One of the strangest cases of all, however, is that of the mistletoe, which, living parasitically95 upon the forest-boughs and apple-trees, would of course be utterly96 lost if its berries dropped their seeds on to the ground beneath it. To avoid such a misfortune, the mistletoe berries are filled with an exceedingly viscid and sticky pulp, surrounding the hard little nut-like seeds: and this pulp makes the seeds cling to the bills and feet of various birds which feed upon the fruit, but most particularly of the missel thrush, who derives97 his common English name from his devotion to the mistletoe. The birds then carry them away unwittingly to some neighbouring tree, and rub them off, when they get uncomfortable, against a forked branch—the exact spots that best suits the young mistletoe for sprouting98 in. Man, in turn, makes use of the sticky pulp for the manufacture of bird-lime, and so employs against the birds the very qualities which the plant intended as a bribe54 for their kindly99 services.
Among seeds that trust for their disposal to the wind, the commonest, simplest, and least evolved type is that of the ordinary capsule, as in the poppies and campions. At first sight, to be sure, a casual observer might suppose there existed in these cases no recognisable device at all for the dissemination of the seedlings. But you and I, most excellent and discreet100 reader, are emphatically not, of course, mere casual observers. We look close, and go to the very root of things. And when we do so, we see for ourselves at once that almost all capsules open—where? why, at the top, so that the seeds can only be shaken out when there is a high enough wind blowing to sway the stems to and fro with some violence, and scatter the small black grains inside to a considerable distance. Furthermore, in many instances, of which the common poppy-head is an excellent example, the capsule opens by lateral101 pores at the top of a flat head—a further precaution which allows the seeds to get out only by a few at a time, after a distinct jerk, and so scatters them pretty evenly, with different winds, over a wide circular space around the mother plant. Experiment will show how this simple dodge works. Try to shake out the poppy-seed from a ripe poppy-head on the plant as it grows, without breaking the stem or bending it unnaturally102, and you will easily see how much force of wind is required in order to put this unobtrusive but very effective mechanism103 into working order.
The devices of this character employed by various plants for the dispersal of seeds even in ordinary dry capsules are far too numerous for me to describe in full detail, though they form a delightful104 subject for individual study in any small suburban105 garden. I will only give one more illustrative case, just to show the sort of point an amateur should always be on the look-out for. There is an extremely common, though inconspicuous, English weed, the mouse-ear chickweed, found everywhere in flower-beds or grass-plots, however small, and noticeable for its quaint106 little horn-shaped capsules. These have a very odd sort of twist or cock-up in the middle, just above the part where the seeds lie; and they open at the top by ten small teeth, pointed107 obliquely108 outward for no apparent reason. Yet every point has a meaning of its own for all that. The plant is one that lies rather close upon the ground; and the effect of this twist in the capsule is that the seeds, which are relatively109 heavy, and well stored with nutriment, can never get out at all, unless a very strong wind is blowing, which sweeps over the herbage in long quick waves, and carries everything it shakes out for great distances before it. So much design have even the smallest weeds put into the mechanism for the dispersion of their precious seeds, the hope of their race and the earnest of their future!
Artillery110 marks a higher stage than the sling111 and the stone. Just so, in many plants, a step higher in the evolutionary112 scale as regards the method of dispersion, the capsule itself bursts open explosively, and scatters its contents to the four winds of heaven. Such plants may be said to discharge their grains on the principle of the bow and arrow. The balsam is a familiar example of this startling mode of moving to fresh fields and pastures new: its capsule consists of five long straight valves, which break asunder113 elastically the moment they are touched, when fully114 ripe, and shed their seeds on all sides, like so many small bombshells. Our friend the squirting cucumber, which served as the prime text for this present discourse115, falls into somewhat the same category, though in other ways it rather resembles the true succulent fruits, and belongs, indeed, to the same family as the melon, the gourd116, the pumpkin117, and the vegetable-marrow, almost all of which are edible and in every way fruit-like. Among English weeds, the little bittercress that grows on dry walls and hedge-banks forms an excellent example of the same device. Village children love to touch the long, ripe, brown capsules on the top with one timid finger, and then jump away, half laughing, half terrified, when the mild-looking little plant goes off suddenly with a small bang and shoots its grains like a catapult point-blank in their faces.
It is in the tropics, however, that these elastic fruits reach their highest development. There they have to fight, not merely against such small fry as robins118, squirrels, and harvest-mice, but against the aggressive parrot, the hard-billed toucan119, the persistent120 lemur, and the inquisitive121 monkey. Moreover, the elastic fruits of the tropics grow often on spreading forest trees, and must therefore shed their seeds to immense distances if they are to reach comparatively virgin122 soil, unexhausted by the deep-set roots of the mother trunk. Under such exceptional circumstances, the tropical examples of these elastic capsules are by no means mere toys to be lightly played with by babes and sucklings. The sand-box tree of the West Indies has large round fruits, containing seeds about as big as an English horsebean; and the capsule explodes, when ripe, with a detonation123 like a pistol, scattering124 its contents with as much violence as a shot from an air-gun. It is dangerous to go too near these natural batteries during the shooting season. A blow in the eye from one would blind a man instantly. I well remember the very first night I spent in my own house in Jamaica, where I went to live shortly after the repression125 of 'Governor Eyre's rebellion,' as everybody calls it locally. All night long I heard somebody, as I thought, practising with a revolver in my own back garden: a sound which somewhat alarmed me under those very unstable126 social conditions. An earthquake about midnight, it is true, diverted my attention temporarily from the recurring127 shots, but didn't produce the slightest effect upon the supposed rebel's devotion to the improvement of his marksmanship. When morning dawned, however, I found it was only a sand-box tree, and that the shots were nothing more than the explosions of the capsules. As to the wonderful tales told about the Brazilian cannon-ball tree, I cannot personally endorse128 them from original observation, and will not stain this veracious129 page with any second-hand130 quotations131 from the strange stories of modern scientific Munchausens.
Still higher in the evolutionary scale than the elastic fruits are those airy species which have taken to themselves wings like the eagle, and soar forth upon the free breeze in search of what the Americans describe as 'fresh locations.' Of this class the simplest type may be seen in those forest-trees, like the maple132 and the sycamore, whose fruits are flattened133 out into long expansions or parachutes, technically134 known as 'keys,' by whose aid they flutter down obliquely to the ground at a considerable distance. The keys of the sycamore, to take a single instance, when detached from the tree in autumn, fall spirally through the air owing to the twist of the winged arm, and are carried so far that, as every gardener knows, young sycamore trees rank among the commonest weeds among our plots and flower-beds. A curious variant135 upon this type is presented by the lime, or linden, whose fruits are in themselves small wingless nuts; but they are born in clusters upon a common stalk, which is winged on either side by a large membranous136 bract. When the nuts are ripe, the whole cluster detaches itself in a body from the branch, and flutters away before the breeze by means of the common parachute, to some spot a hundred yards or more, where the wind chances to land it.
The topmost place of all in the hierarchy137 of seed life, it seems to me, is taken by the feathery fruits and seeds which float freely hither and thither138 wherever the wind may bear them. An immense number of the very highest plants—the aristocrats139 of the vegetable kingdom, such as the lordly composites, those ultimate products of plant evolution—possess such floating feathery seeds; though here, again, the varieties of detail are too infinite for rapid or popular classification. Indeed, among the composites alone—the thistle and dandelion tribe with downy fruits—I can reckon up more than a hundred and fifty distinct variations of plan among the winged seeds known to me in various parts of Europe. But if I am strong, I am merciful: I will let the public off with a hundred and forty-eight of them. My two exceptions shall be John-go-to-bed-at-noon and the hairy hawkweed, both of them common English meadow-plants. The first, and more quaintly140 named, of the two has little ribbed fruits that end in a long and narrow beak141, supporting a radial rib31-work of spokes142 like the frame of an umbrella; and from rib to rib of this framework stretch feathery cross-pieces, continuous all round, so as to make of the whole mechanism a perfect circular parachute, resembling somewhat the web of a geometrical spider. But the hairy hawkweed is still more cunning in its generation; for that clever and cautious weed produces its seeds or fruits in clustered heads, of which the central ones are winged, while the outer are heavy, squat143, and wingless. Thus does the plant make the best of all chances that may happen to open before it: if one lot goes far and fares but ill, the other is pretty sure to score a bull's-eye.
These are only a few selected examples of the infinite dodges144 employed by enlightened herbs and shrubs to propagate their scions145 in foreign parts. Many more, equally interesting, must be left undescribed. Only for a single case more can I still find room—that of the subterranean146 clover, which has been driven by its numerous enemies to take refuge at last in a very remarkable147 and almost unique mode, of protecting its offspring. This particular kind of clover affects smooth and close-cropped hillsides, where the sheep nibble148 down the grass and other herbage almost as fast as it springs up again. Now, clover seeds resemble their allies of the pea and bean tribe in being exceedingly rich in starch149 and other valuable foodstuffs150. Hence, they are much sought after by the inquiring sheep, which eat them off wherever found, as exceptionally nutritious151 and dainty morsels152. Under these circumstances, the subterranean clover has learnt to produce small heads of bloom, pressed close to the ground, in which only the outer flowers are perfect and fertile, while the inner ones are transformed into tiny wriggling153 corkscrews. As soon as the fertile flowers have begun to set their seed, by the kind aid of the bees, the whole stem bends downward, automatically, of its own accord; the little corkscrews then worm their way into the turf beneath; and the pods ripen154 and mature in the actual soil itself, where no prying155 ewe can poke3 an inquisitive nose to grub them up and devour92 them. Cases like this point in certain ways to the absolute high-water-mark of vegetable ingenuity156: they go nearest of all in the plant-world to the similitude of conscious animal intelligence.
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1
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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poke
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| n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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4
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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5
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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6
scatters
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| v.（使）散开， （使）分散，驱散( scatter的第三人称单数 )；撒 | |
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7
pulp
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| n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆 | |
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elastically
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| adv.有弹性地，伸缩自如地 | |
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elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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10
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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11
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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windbag
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| n.风囊，饶舌之人，好说话的人 | |
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13
browsing
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| v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息 | |
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14
meditative
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| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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15
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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bristles
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| 短而硬的毛发，刷子毛( bristle的名词复数 ) | |
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miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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disseminate
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| v.散布；传播 | |
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seedlings
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| n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 ) | |
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etymologically
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| adv.语源上 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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diffusion
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| n.流布；普及；散漫 | |
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gossamer
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| n.薄纱，游丝 | |
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charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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wafted
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| v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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lettuces
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| n.莴苣，生菜（ lettuce的名词复数 ）；生菜叶 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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dissemination
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| 传播,宣传,传染(病毒) | |
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rotation
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| n.旋转；循环，轮流 | |
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turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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constituents
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| n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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discursive
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| adj.离题的，无层次的 | |
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projections
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| 预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物 | |
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41
dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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43
attains
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的第三人称单数 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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44
ostrich
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| n.鸵鸟 | |
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45
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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46
mounds
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| 土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆 | |
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47
fermenting
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| v.（使）发酵( ferment的现在分词 )；（使）激动；骚动；骚扰 | |
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48
putrefaction
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| n.腐坏，腐败 | |
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49
pollen
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| n.[植]花粉 | |
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50
disperse
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| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
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51
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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52
locomotion
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| n.运动，移动 | |
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53
utilized
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| v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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55
bribed
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| v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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56
cleavers
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| n.猪殃殃（其茎、实均有钩刺）；砍肉刀，剁肉刀( cleaver的名词复数 ) | |
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57
adhesive
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| n.粘合剂；adj.可粘着的，粘性的 | |
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58
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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59
nether
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| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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60
wayfaring
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| adj.旅行的n.徒步旅行 | |
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61
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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62
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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63
nucleus
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| n.核，核心，原子核 | |
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64
dispersing
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| adj. 分散的 动词disperse的现在分词形式 | |
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65
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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66
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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67
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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68
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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69
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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70
wither
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| vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡 | |
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71
withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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72
prehensile
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| adj.（足等）适于抓握的 | |
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73
germination
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| n.萌芽，发生；萌发；生芽；催芽 | |
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74
edible
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| n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的 | |
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75
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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76
pulpy
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| 果肉状的，多汁的，柔软的； 烂糊； 稀烂 | |
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77
alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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78
foodstuff
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| n.食料，食品 | |
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79
degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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80
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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81
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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82
gastric
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| adj.胃的 | |
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83
physiologists
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| n.生理学者( physiologist的名词复数 )；生理学( physiology的名词复数 )；生理机能 | |
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84
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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85
embedded
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| a.扎牢的 | |
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86
fig
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| n.无花果(树) | |
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87
specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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88
luscious
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| adj.美味的；芬芳的；肉感的，引与性欲的 | |
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89
morsel
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| n.一口，一点点 | |
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90
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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91
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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92
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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93
devours
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| 吞没( devour的第三人称单数 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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94
wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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95
parasitically
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| adv.寄生地，由寄生虫引起地 | |
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96
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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97
derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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98
sprouting
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| v.发芽( sprout的现在分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
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99
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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100
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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101
lateral
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| adj.侧面的，旁边的 | |
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102
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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103
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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104
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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105
suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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106
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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107
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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108
obliquely
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| adv.斜； 倾斜； 间接； 不光明正大 | |
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109
relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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110
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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111
sling
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| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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112
evolutionary
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| adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的 | |
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113
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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114
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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115
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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116
gourd
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| n.葫芦 | |
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117
pumpkin
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| n.南瓜 | |
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118
robins
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| n.知更鸟，鸫( robin的名词复数 )；（签名者不分先后，以避免受责的）圆形签名抗议书（或请愿书） | |
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119
toucan
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| n.巨嘴鸟，犀鸟 | |
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120
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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121
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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122
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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123
detonation
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| n.爆炸；巨响 | |
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124
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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125
repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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126
unstable
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| adj.不稳定的，易变的 | |
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127
recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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128
endorse
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| vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意 | |
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129
veracious
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| adj.诚实可靠的 | |
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130
second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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131
quotations
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| n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价 | |
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132
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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133
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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134
technically
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| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
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135
variant
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| adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体 | |
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136
membranous
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| adj.膜的，膜状的 | |
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137
hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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138
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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139
aristocrats
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| n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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140
quaintly
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| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
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141
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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142
spokes
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| n.（车轮的）辐条( spoke的名词复数 )；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 | |
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143
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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144
dodges
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| n.闪躲( dodge的名词复数 )；躲避；伎俩；妙计v.闪躲( dodge的第三人称单数 )；回避 | |
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145
scions
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| n.接穗，幼枝( scion的名词复数 )；（尤指富家）子孙 | |
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146
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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147
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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148
nibble
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| n.轻咬，啃；v.一点点地咬，慢慢啃，吹毛求疵 | |
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149
starch
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| n.淀粉；vt.给...上浆 | |
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150
foodstuffs
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| 食物，食品( foodstuff的名词复数 ) | |
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151
nutritious
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| adj.有营养的，营养价值高的 | |
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152
morsels
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| n.一口( morsel的名词复数 )；（尤指食物）小块，碎屑 | |
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153
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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154
ripen
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| vt.使成熟；vi.成熟 | |
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155
prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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156
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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