CHAPTER II. 



FRUITS AND COLONISATION BY SEED. 



The colour of fruits is generally very conspicuous, 

 and contrasts very distinctly with that of the foliage. 

 The dark glossy leaves of the Orange form an 

 excellent setting for its golden yellow fruits. The 

 black of the Olive is particularly distinct against its 

 white shining branches. Nothing sets off a bunch 

 of Rowan Berries so well as the peculiar bluish silver 

 green of the leaves, and the bright colour of Ripe 

 Apples, Hips, Haws, Cherries, Holly Berries, etc., makes 

 it easy for birds to distinguish them even at a 

 distance. 



" Some were of burnished gold. 

 Some deep empurpled as the Hyacine, 

 Some as the ruby laughing sweetly red, 

 Some like fair emeralds not yet well ripened." 



There is a distinct reason for this. All fleshy fruits 

 are intended to be eaten by animals, which are 

 supposed to carry them off and drop the seed at a 

 little distance from the parent plant. 



A thrush or blackbird eating the fruit of the Wild 

 Rose, for instance, pecks at the fleshy part, and in 

 the course of its meal scatters the stony fruits over 

 a considerable space, the stiff, rather elastic hairs 

 on these latter probably assisting in the process of 

 dispersal. In other cases, the whole fruit is swallowed, 



§5 



