XATURE STUDY LESSONS. I49 



about. They must have some way of scattering their 

 seeds. Some open their pods with a snap, and throw 

 their seeds about: some let the wind take them; some fur- 

 nish their seeds with hooks, that they may steal a ride, and 

 man}- hide their seeds in their fruits and tempt the birds 

 to eat them and carry them away. Color plays a very im- 

 portant part here, not for the purpose of hiding, but to at- 

 tract attention; forman}- plants must have their fruit eaten 

 b}- birds in order that their seeds may be scattered far and 

 wide. When we begin to understand this, we are pretty 

 sure to think of 



THE PARTRIDGE-BERRY. 



Almost ever}- boy and girl knows the pretty and modest 

 little partridge-berry, with tiny leaves that are green all the 

 year round, and bright red berries, which do not fall off 

 when ripe as many berries do. It is very common in al- 

 most any kind of woods, and its red fruit may be found all 

 through the winter beneath the snow, and even in the 

 spring when the snow has melted awa}-. 



The Mitchella, as the great Linnaeus named the par- 

 tridge-berry, is very abundant, and has been for a great 

 many centuries, but it is of itself a helpless little plant, 

 which would have become extremel)- rare long ago, or per- 

 haps have perished altogether, if it had not been for the 

 birds. Its stem, which trails or " runs " on the ground, is 

 hardly ever eighteen inches long, and is often less than 

 six. It has to fight its way against larger and stronger 

 plants, and if its seeds all fell where they grew, it would 

 spread very slowl}^ if at all. Wherever it was too dry in 

 summer, often where the snow changed to ice in winter, 

 the plants would be killed. This would happen year after 

 year, the patches where the partridge-berr}- had been 

 killed out growing larger and larger, until at last it would 

 be found "only in some ^especially favorable spot, or even 



