398 The Living Plant 



and tall-growing vines, where birds most frequent; though they 

 are by no means absent from low-growing herbs where they are 

 eaten by ground birds or some of the smaller mammals. The 

 indigestible coatings are formed either by seed coats, as in Grape, 

 by ovary walls, as in Strawberry, or by a part of the ovary, as in 

 the stone of the Cherry. Sometimes instead of the hard coat, an 

 inedible core is developed, which is carried away but not eaten, 

 as in Apples, while in yet others the slippery seeds are hardly 

 swallowed at all, but are scattered around as the pulp is devoured, 

 as in Oranges. The pulp is formed from the most diverse parts, — 

 one can almost say every possible part, — from ovary as in Grape, 

 receptacle as in Strawberry, bract as in Juniper, seed coat as in 

 Yew, calyx as in Wintergreen, placentae as in Watermelon, or 

 hairs as in Oranges. The colors in general are such as are most 

 conspicuous under the special conditions prevailing where the 

 fruit ripens. Thus red is the most common of the colors of fruits, 

 and it is that which is most conspicuous against the green of 

 foliage; but purple or blue is more conmion in fruits of the autumn 

 which ripen when the foliage has turned yellow or red, while 

 white occurs in some berries which grow in the dusk of shady 

 places near the ground. Before they are ripe these fruits are 

 commonly sour, or astringent and unpalatable, and, moreover, 

 are green in color, precisely like the foliage. This color may serve 

 to prevent their notice by animals before the seeds are ripe, al- 

 though such a function for the green color is probably wholly 

 incidental and secondary to its use as accessory food-making 

 tissue. 



A special phase of dissemination by animals, the importance of 

 which has only lately been realized, is the transport of seeds of 

 low-growing herbs by ants. Such seeds are mostly small and 

 light, but are provided with an attached reservoir of food-material 

 (called the caruncle), attractive to ants, which carry the seeds to 

 various distances from the capsules, leaving them where the food 

 has been used. It has also been supposed that some seeds which 



