ON FRUITS AND SEEDS. 



355 



authority to the same conclusion. For my part I can not accept this 

 view. There are, it seems to me, very strong reasons against it, into 

 which I can not, of course, now enter ; and, though I should rely main- 

 ly on other considerations, the colors of fruits are not, I think, with- 

 out significance. If monkeys and apes could distinguish them, surely 

 we may infer that even the most savage of men could do so too. 

 Zeuxis would never have deceived the birds if he had not had a fair 

 perception of color. 



^ b 





Fig. 14. a. burdock (Zap;>a); 5, agrimony (^(7nmoni) ; c, bur parsley (Caucalis) ; d, enchanter's 

 nightshade {Circoea) ; e, cleavers {Galiuin) ; /, forget-me-nots {Myosotis). 



In these instances of colored fruits, the fleshy edible part more or 

 less surrounds the true seeds ; in others the actual seeds themselves 

 become edible. In the former the edible part serves as a temptation 

 to animals ; in the latter it is stored up for the use of the plant itself. 

 When, therefore, the seeds themselves are edible they are generally 

 protected by more or less hard or bitter envelopes, for instance the 



