SEED DISPERSAL 



WE have our seed-time and harvest, but Nature 

 does not so divide the year. She sows her seed 

 as soon as they are ripe, and is doing it now in 

 the most prodigal fashion. A great deal has been 

 written about the ingenuity of the devices she 

 has evolved for the more effective accomplishment 

 of the function, and they are wonderful, indeed, 

 both in their cunning and variety. For the 

 scattering of its seeds the vegetable world has 

 enlisted the services of the animal world. Cherries, 

 apples, pears., plums, berries of every sort are 

 all but so many bribes offered to animal nature 

 as an inducement to perform the service of carry- 

 ing the seeds. Birds eat berries, and the seeds 

 pass through their intestines uninjured. They are 

 thus carried far and wide. Almost all the fruits 

 which, in popular language, go by that name, 

 have hard or bitter seeds, which the eater rejects ; 

 and the service of diffusion is performed for the 

 reward offered. In less pleasant ways animals 

 are impressed in this service. Hooked seeds, of 

 which there are many, attach themselves to hair, 

 and stop there till the outer cover with its attach- 

 ments is reduced to dust, when the true seed falls 

 250 



