CHAPTER XVI 
GERANIUMS, WOOD-SORREL, AND CAMPIONS 
IF you pass through a wood in winter, when all the leaves 
have fallen, you will probably have your attention drawn 
to a shrub which you passed by in the wealth of summer 
foliage, and will see a gleam of red berries, pinkish, not 
scarlet, like the hawthorn berries. A closer look will 
show you some seed-vessels of curious shape, in from 
three to five divisions, and where the walls of the seed- 
vessel have split you may see within a bright orange- 
coloured fruit. This is the Spindle Tree, which earlier 
in the year bore small greenish- 
white flowers, usually with four 
petals each. That orange, fleshy 
rind encloses the seed, and one 
may conjecture fairly that the 
bright colours are to attract the 
birds, which will probably drop 
on the ground quite as many 
seeds as they eat; and even if 
the seeds are actually swallowed 
they are so hard that they may 
and, after an adventurous course 
SPINDLE-TREE FRUIT. in its interior, resume a free exist- 
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defy the bird’s digestive powers, © 
