iv.] HOOKED SEEDS. 75 



In these instances of coloured fruits, the fleshy edible 

 part more or less surrounds the true seeds ; in others 

 the actual seeds themselves become edible. In the 

 former the edible part serves as a temptation to 

 animals ; in the latter it is stored up for the use of the 

 plant itself. When, therefore, the seeds themselves 

 are edible they are generally protected by more or 

 less hard or bitter envelopes, for instance the Horse 

 Chestnut, Beech, Spanish Chestnut, Walnut, &c. 

 That these seeds are used as food by squirrels and 

 other animals is, however, by no means necessarily an 

 evil to the plant, for the result is that they are often 

 carried some distance and then dropped, or stored up 

 and forgotten, so that in this way they get carried 

 away from the parent tree. 



In another class of instances animals, unconsciously 

 or unwillingly, serve in the dispersion of seeds. 

 These cases may be divided into two classes, those in 

 which the fruits are provided with hooks, and those in 

 which they are sticky. To the first class belong, 

 among our common English plants, the Burdock 

 (Lappa, Fig. 50, a) ; Agrimony (Agrimonia, Fig. 50, I?) 

 the Bur Parsley (Caucalis, Fig. 50, c] ; Enchanter's 

 Nightshade (Circ<za, Fig. 50, d] ; Goose Grass or 

 Cleavers (Galium, Fig. 50. e), and some of the Forget- 

 me-nots (My0s0tis,.Fig. BO,/"). The hooks, moreover^ 

 are so arranged as to promote the removal of the 

 fruits. In all these species the hooks, though beauti- 

 fully formed, are small; but in some foreign species 

 they become truly formidable. Two of the most 

 remarkable are represented on page 77, Martynia 

 proboscidea (Fig. 51, b] and HarpagopJiytonprocumbens 

 (Fig. 51, a). Martynia is a plant of Louisiana, and if 



