HOW PLANTS PROTECT THEMSELVES
Plants have various ways of protecting themselves. Some emit an unpleasant odour; others produce a poisonous substance; and others grow weapons like thorns, spines, or the stinging hairs of nettles. Not all the protective weapons have been produced in the same way. In the rose, bramble, or blackberry, for example, the thorns are simply hairs of the outer skin hardened by the deposition of matter on their outsides. In plants like the blackthorn, sloe, and the locust tree, the spines are developed from buds. In other plants, as for instance the barberry, the spines are modified leaves. The way in which the prickly pear, like other cacti, protects itself is very ingenious. It has reduced its leaves to thin .spines, which serve a double purpose. They ward off enemies that would eat the plant, and also prevent evaporation of the plant’s moisture in a hot, dry climate.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NEM19361007.2.9
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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 7 October 1936, Page 2
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151HOW PLANTS PROTECT THEMSELVES Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 7 October 1936, Page 2
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