40 THE HEDGE-BANK. 



they are ripe, a circumstance which appears at 

 first to be of very trifling importance, but in effect 

 this peculiarity tends in no slight degree to ensure 

 a nursery of young seedling trees. At the season 

 when these seeds usually ripen, the air for the 

 most part is still ; if, therefore, they were to fall 

 spontaneously as soon as matured, they would 

 drop on the ground beneath the tree, under the 

 shade of overhanging branches, and there, in all 

 probability, perish. But being, even when ripe, 

 firmly attached to the branches, they do not fall 

 unless some degree of violence is exerted. In 

 stormy weather, therefore, the wind separates 

 them from the tree, and at the same time blows 

 them to such a distance that great numbers fall 

 in situations where they want nothing but the 

 return of spring to make them vegetate. The 

 seed of the Sycamore is also interesting from 

 its being protected by a downy lining of the 

 seed- case from wet and cold, to which it is par- 

 ticularly liable to be exposed while hanging on 

 the tree. 



JBeeches and Oaks shed their nuts and acorns as 

 soon as they are ripe, that is to say, in weather 

 which is usually calm : winged seeds would, there- 

 fore, be of little use to them, and they are not 

 provided with them. Beech-nuts and acorns, 

 then, fall perpendicularly to the ground, where 

 they would remain, probably, till they rotted, had 

 not nature provided other means for disseminating 

 them. They are the favourite food of wood- 

 pigeons and other birds, who, carrying them off 

 and frequently dropping them in their flight, sow 

 them in situations well-adapted for their growth. 

 Squirrels and dormice, also, store them away in 



