Minnesota Plant Life. 



295 



witli hooked ends. The clematis-hke fruit of the avens may 

 he compared to a strawberry in whicli the pulpy part is dry 

 and the ends of the nutlets are prolonged into plumes, enabHng 

 each nutlet to be distributed by the wind. 



The majority of the rose fruits are adapted to animal distri- 

 bution, but the fivefingers and the avens depend rather upon 

 the agency of the wind. The rose hip, as has been said, may 

 be compared to a strawberry turned inside out, with an apple- 

 like pulp growing up around it. One can easily see at the end 

 of an apple opposite the stem, and at the end of the rose hip 

 more clearly still, the five points of the five calyx leaves, which 

 have become fleshy and assist in the distribution of the seeds. 

 The colors, perfumes, essences and sugars of the ripe fruiting 

 areas, whether these areas be the axis of the flower, as in the 

 strawberry, the sw^ollen calyx leaves, as in the apples, haw- 

 thorns, pears and rose hips, or the ovary walls, as in the plums 

 and cherries, are in all instances adaptations for the attraction 

 of birds and animals. So that, in being eaten, such fruits 

 accomplish their own ends and are not to be regarded as un- 

 fortunate, like the fruits of wheat and corn that never "intended" 

 themselves to be eaten, but stored up their food materials en- 

 tirely for the benefit of their own enfolded plantlets. From 

 this point of view it is apparent that there are two classes of 

 edible fruits, those made edible by the plant for animal distri- 

 bution, and those adapted to the nourishment of the seedlings, 

 but seized by animals contrary to the well-being of the plant. 

 Of the former class apples are examples, of the latter, the cereal 

 grains. 



The pea family. Related to the roses is the great pulse 

 family in which the pod-bearing plants of the world are classi- 

 fied. The lower genera of pulses have more or less regular 

 flowers with radial symmetry, but the higher genera form but- 

 terfly-shaped flowers like those of the sweet peas, and of a shape 

 distinct from that of any other flowers in the plant kingdom. 

 There is never any doubt whatever about the classification of 

 a plant if it shows the butterfly-shaped blossom. The pulse 

 family as a whole, however, is a group based rather upon fruit 

 than upon flower structure, for all the species are marked by 

 the production of pods or legumes. The legume is a fruit 



