:fi5rfn9ins jfortb ifrult 179 



plantain, grasses, are conveyed from place to place 

 by grazing beasts. The seed is contained in so hard 

 a husk or case that it is not digested with the soft 

 parts of the eaten plant, and is finally dropped in 

 conditions promotive of rapid growth. 



Squirrels, field-mice, and other little rodents that 

 have a habit of storing up winter food are fine seed 

 planters. It has been estimated that, if let alone, 

 squirrels would each year replant many acres of 

 woodland, especially with such valuable trees as the 

 cherry, oak, chestnut, walnut, beech. These squir- 

 rels carry off and hide or accidentally drop thou- 

 sands of nuts of which they forget the hiding- 

 places. 



Of all the plants' partners the birds are the most 

 helpful. For them the fruits put on their richest 

 colors, and take their juicy sweetness, their perfume. 

 Seeds, berries, all small fruits, as currants, goose- 

 berries, cherries, bid for the aid of birds in seed 

 scattering. The bird often swallow^s the whole fruit, 

 as the thorn-apples and rose-haws. The jDulp and 

 flesh are quickly digested and the hungry bird is ever 

 seeking for more. The seeds and pits are too thickly 

 coated to digest, and are dropped as the birds flit 

 from place to place. 



We notice the hardness of the pits of peaches, 

 plums, cherries; the firm, horny cases of lemon, 



