iSg6. DISPERSAL OF SEEDS BY BIRDS. 193 



or crimson-scarlet, and Sauropus albicans, BL, the fruits of which are 

 usually white, sometimes has them rose-coloured. Fluggea microcavpa, 

 BL, Callicarpa longifolia, Benth. , Psychotria sarmentosa, 3\.,Cissus camosa, 

 Wall., and Cyclea Amotti, Miers, are natives of river banks and hedges. 

 They have small or medium-sized fruits, of a pure white, often 

 massed together and very conspicuous. 



Several of the Eugenias, e.g., E. zeylanica, Wight, E. lineata, BL, 

 are very conspicuous when in fruit, being loaded with small snowy 

 drupes, which are much sought by birds. A rather curious arrange- 

 ment is found in Sloetia sideroxylon, Teysm. (Urticaceae). When the 

 fruit is ripe the green perianth is found to have increased very much in 

 size and become of a whitish colour, and the inner pair of lobes is 

 quite white, swollen, and fleshy, and sweet and eatable. These lobes 

 grasp tightly the pea-shaped nut, and when a bird or other animal 

 bites the fleshy petals the nut is shot out to a short distance, and so 

 not only escapes injury from the animal, but is also thrown to some 

 distance from the tree. 



Blue is, perhaps, the rarest of all colours in fruits, that is to say 

 pure blue, for there are a number of fruits of a deep steely blue which 

 at a little distance appear black, such as those of Cinnamomum iners, BL 

 Pure blue occurs in a few plants which inhabit dense dark jungles. 

 Nearly all the Lasianthi Cephaelis (Rubiaceae), Symplocos fasciculata and 

 other species, Dianella ensi folia, Red., are the only blue-berried plants 

 I have seen here. Peliosanthes, however, has blue seeds which are 

 exposed in a remarkable way. The pericarp of the fruit does not 

 increase in size concomitantly with the seeds, but is pierced by the 

 latter, which eventually become of considerable size and drupe-like, 

 with a thick eatable testa of a light blue colour. In some of the 

 Lasianthi and Dianella the fruits are at first white, changing to blue, 

 and sometimes they remain white even when apparently ripe. Blue 

 is really more conspicuous than white in thick jungle where the flecks 

 of sunlight on the wet leaves look white, and prevent isolated white 

 fruits from being as conspicuous in the dark woods as might be 

 expected. 



Purple and violet fruits are not very common but are sometimes 

 to be met with. Eugenia acuminatissima, Kurz., Dissochceta gracilis, BL, 

 Anplectvum glaucum, Triana, Callicarpa rubella, Benth., and a few others, 

 possess purple fruits, which, however, usually look black at a short 

 distance. They occur in open places, like most of the black-fruited 

 plants. Many capsular fruits are brightly coloured, and in this case it is 

 usual for the seeds to be provided with either an edible testa or an 

 aril. Sometimes the whole fruit becomes soft and is eaten like a 

 berry; indeed, in these cases it is sometimes difficult to decide whether 

 the fruit is to be called capsular or baccate. Xiphidium floribundum 

 Aubl. (Haemodoracese), a native of South America, is an example of this. 

 The fruit is a nearly globose orange-red capsule, the walls of which 

 are pulpy and sweet. The cells in the ripe fruit are not filled up with 



p 



