HIDE AND SEEK. 107 



fruit-eating birds peculiar to those climates. Mr. 

 Grant Allen and others have pointed out the asso- 

 ciation of bright colours in butterflies and birds 

 generally, with the attractive flowers and fruits they 

 feed upon. These surroundings may have led to 

 sexual selection operating in certain directions ; on 

 the principle of the old proverb, that we can tell a 

 man's character by the company he keeps. 



There are not many species of fruits in Great 

 Britain which lay themselves out for dissemination 

 by the aid of mammals ; but representatives are not- 

 wanting. In some countries the number of such 

 fruits is oftimes great, and the mechanism developed 

 for the purpose of conveyance very ingenious. The 

 Burdock {Arctmin lappa), found in most waste places 

 — a plant which has run into several well-marked 

 varieties — is perhaps the most striking. It owes its 

 popular name to the " burs " or flower-heads, set all 

 round with numerous hooks which take hold of the 

 clothing of a man, or the hairy hide of a passing 

 animal, with the greatest facility. The seed-vessels 

 or fruits of the Goose-grass or " Cleavers " {Galium 

 aparine) are also crowded over with a similar minute 

 fish-hook-like mechanism with which both its stem 

 and fruits are covered. 



In countries where wild animals are more numer- 

 ous, plants bearing mammal-dispersed seeds are more 

 plentiful, and their mechanical adaptation to this kind 

 of dissemination is shown by the number of fruits 



