io6 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



remain attached to the four expanded crimson 

 coverings, so as to render the Spindle-tree fruit the 

 most attractive perhaps of our native species. These 

 fruits are so beautiful that the branches bearing 

 them are frequently plucked and placed in vases for 

 the sake of their attractive and flower-like appearance. 

 The birds, however, do not allow them to hang long 

 — plain evidence of the success of their chromatic 

 device. 



The elaborate and successful method adopted 

 by the fruits of our Spindle -tree, of displaying tzvo 

 colours instead of only one, as is usually the case, is 

 practised elsewhere. In the West Indian Islands 

 there is a species of Pithecolobmni whose curious 

 pods curl two or three times round, like those of the 

 Medic, and when they split, they are bright red 

 inside, which acts as a foil to the bright-blue seeds. 



In the South Pacific Islands the natives utilise 

 some of the bright-coloured seeds, and convert them 

 into neck-beads, with excellent effect. One point is 

 worth noting in all these brightly-coloured seeds — 

 they are usually scarlet^ and always remarkably 

 hard. Consequently they take no harm from being 

 soaked a few hours in an animal's stomach ; for 

 their superior hardness protects them from digestion, 

 and afterwards they are disseminated successfully. 



The larger fruits of tropical and equatorial regions 

 have been evolved side by side, and contempor- 

 aneously with the larger and more brilliant kinds of 



