NUMBER XXVII 

 AUTUMN FRUITS 



IN autumn we see the beginning of the end of 

 many living creatures, but there are also 

 preparations for the winter and for years to come. 

 One autumn evening we sat looking down on the 

 village from the hill above, and, as we watched, all 

 the lights were put out one after another, though 

 sometimes it was simply that the blinds were drawn 

 and the shutters closed ; we felt that the day was 

 indeed over ; but as we looked longer, there rose 

 in our mind the picture of banked-up fires, of things 

 set in order for the morning, and of other prepara- 

 tions for a new day, besides the chief preparation of 

 rest. It is the same in the household of Nature. 



When we turn to fruits, however, we see prepara- 

 tions which are not so much for the individual as 

 for the continuance of the race. In a sense they 

 crown the plant's work for the year, but their full 

 meaning is not for the individual. They protect 

 and scatter the seeds, but all that is in them is loss 

 to the parent plant. 



A fruit is the part of the flower that persists after 

 pollination that is to say, after the possible seeds 



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