Читать книгу The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers - Various - Страница 218

The grubs of many beetles live in wood, upon which they feed. This probably gives a clue to the primary use of the important commercial substances india-rubber and guttapercha, which are the dried sticky juices of various shrubs and trees growing in hot climates. Beetles of the wood-boring kind, which seek to pierce and lay eggs in such plants, are liable to be snarled and killed by the viscid fluids which ooze out.

Arums, and various other plants, ward off the attacks of snails and slugs in a rather curious way The outer parts of their stems and leafstalks contain bundles of excessively sharp crystals (raphides), composed of oxalate of lime. These pierce the soft mouths of snails and slugs like so many needles, conveying a lesson which usually needs no repetition.

STRANGE LIFE HABITS OF UNUSUAL PLANTS