616 Sir John Luhhock [Feb. 18, 



in which seeds are figured, for instance Gaertner's ' De Fructibus et 

 Seminibus,' Le Maout and Decaisne (Hooker's translation) ' Descriptive 

 and Analytical Botany,' and Baillon's ' Histoire des Plantes.' I find 

 thirty genera, belonging to twenty-one different natural orders, figured 

 as having seeds or fruits of this form. They are all trees or climbing 

 shrubs, not one being a low herb. 



Let us take another case, that of the plants in which the dispersion 

 of the seed is effected by means of hooks. Now, if the presence of 

 these hooks were, so to say, accidental, and the dispersion merely a 

 result, we should naturally exj^ect to find some species with hooks in 

 all classes of plants. They would occur, for instance, among trees and 

 on water-plants. On the other hand, if they are developed that they 

 might adhere to the skin of quadrupeds, then, having reference to the 

 habits and size of our British mammals, it would be no advantage for 

 a tree or for a water-plant to bear hooked seeds. Now, what are the 

 facts ? There are about thirty English species in which the disper- 

 sion of the seeds is effected by means of hooks, but not one of these is 

 aquatic, nor is one of them more than four feet high. Nay, I might 

 carry the thing farther. We have a number of minute plants, which 

 lie below the level at which seeds would be likely to be entangled in 

 fur. Now none of these, again, have hooked seeds or fruits. It would 

 also seem, as Hildebrand has suggested, that in point of time, also, 

 the appearance of the families of plants in which the fruits or 

 seeds are provided with hooks coincided with that of the land 

 mammalia. 



Again, let us look at it from another point of view. Let us take 

 our common forest trees, shrubs, and tall climbing plants; not, of 

 course, a natural or botanical group, for they belong to a number of 

 different orders, but a group characterised by attaining to a height of 

 say over eight feet. We will in some cases only count genera ; that 

 is to say, we will count all the willows, for instance, as one. These 

 trees and shrubs are plants with which you are all familiar, and are 

 about thirty-three in number. Now, of these thirty-three no less than 

 eighteen have edible fruits or seeds, such as the Plum, Apple, Arbutus, 

 Holly, Hazel, Beech, and Rose. Three have seeds which are 

 provided with feathery hairs; and all the rest, namely, the Lime, 

 Maple, Ash, Sycamore, Elm, Hop, Birch, Hornbeam, Pine, and Fir are 

 provided with a wing. Moreover, as will be seen by the table on the 

 following page, the lower trees and shrubs, such as the Cornel, Guelder 

 Rose, Rose, Thorn, Privet, Elder, Yew, and Holly have generally 

 edible berries, much eaten by birds. The winged seeds or fruits 

 characterise the great forest trees. 



Or let us take one natural order. That of the Roses is particularly 

 interesting. In the genus Gemn the fruit is provided with hooks ; in 

 JDryas it terminates in a long feathered awn, like that of Clematis. 

 On the other hand, several genera have edible fruits ; but it is curious 

 that the part of a plant which becomes fleshy, and thus tempting to 

 animals, differs considerably in the different genera. In the Black- 



