^acaZ 



CHAPTER LX 



FRUIT AND SEED DISTRIBUTION 



369. Seed as forerunner. We have studied seeds as arising 

 from the ovules in flowers (pp. 300-303), and we have studied 

 them as consisting of 

 young plants with more 

 or less accumulated food 

 and a covering (pp. 32- 

 36). We can realize the 

 full meaning of seeds in 

 plant life when we con- 

 sider that during the 

 winter the fields are bare 

 and thousands of plants 

 have entirely perished, 

 leaving behind them 

 the seeds as the only 

 living remains. It is 

 these seeds that repre- 

 sent the species of all 

 the annuals during the 

 months in which active 

 plant life is impossible. 

 And it is from the seeds 



that these species will be reestablished the following season 

 when the conditions for growth are again favorable. 



From the point of view of the seed as the forerunner of 

 the new generation, the fruit may be considered in relation 

 to the protection and the dispersal of seeds, since the fruit is 

 the organ within which the seed ripens. 



315 



Fig. 143. jNIechanical protection of seeds 



/, bitternut {Hlcoria minuna), of the walnut family ; 



2, chestnut oak {Qiicrcus priiuts) : j, sweet gum 



{Liguidambai- styracifliia), of the witch-hazel family ; 



4, table-mountain pine {Piniis pioigens) 



