Some of our common British fruits are most perfectly planned to stick or entangle themselves in the wool of sheep or in people's clothes. These, such as the Goosegrass (Robin-run-the-Hedge), Burdock, Forget-me-not, Sanicle, Avens, etc., have very often been described. It is only necessary to examine one's clothes after a walk through rough, broken ground to discover some of them, and the ingenuity and neatness of their tiny hooks, harpoons, or prongs can then be realized. We shall give one or two instances of some other spiny plants. There is, for instance, Xanthium, which is one of the Daisy flowers or Composites. Unlike most of this order, its little fruits possess no wind-hairs. The outside of the head of flowers is covered by strong curved little crooks. These get so entangled in wool or hair that they become a perfect pest to wool merchants. In 1814 Xanthium was unknown in the Crimea, but by 1856 it had covered the whole of the peninsula. In 1828 the Russian cavalry horses brought it on their manes and tails into Wallachia, from whence it travelled to Servia. Servian pigs carried it into Hungary. In 1830 it was taken in wool to Vienna. By 1871 it had reached Paris and Edinburgh. In 1860 Frauenfeld saw horses in Chile whose manes and tails were so felted together with thousands of these fruits that the animals could scarcely walk. In Australia, where it first appeared in 1850, it has caused a very serious loss to the wool merchants and squatters. The loss has been put at 50 per cent. by some authorities.[115] [115] Ludwig, _l.c._, after Ihne, Frauenfeld, Shaw. We have already alluded to the transference of fruits and seeds by ocean currents. In the _Challenger_ expedition, no less than ninety-seven kinds of marine floating fruits were observed. Amongst these the most important is the Cocoanut. The nut sold in this country is not the whole fruit, but only the inside shell. In the natural state this is enclosed in a dense mass of fibres, which form the valuable "coir" used for brushmaking and a variety of purposes. The entire outside of the fruit is covered by a smooth white skin. The whole fruit is about the size of a man's head, and is so light that it floats easily in the water. It has in fact been carried by the waves to uninhabited islands all over the South Seas. It is a very great blessing to Polynesia, for a tree yields thirty to fifty nuts, and four of these nuts will furnish enough food for one day. Coprah and the oil extracted by boiling the inside are also valuable. Spirit or toddy can be made from the young buds. The leaves are used for thatching and the trunk for timber. There are other very curious palm fruits which are also carried by water. Sir Joseph Hooker mentions the large, round fruits of Nipa, as big as a cannon-ball, turned over by the paddles of the steamer in the muddy waters at the Ganges mouth (_Himalayan Journal_).