THE SUCCESSION OF FOREST TREES. 37 



Every one of these seeds, too, will be found to be 

 winged or legged in another fashion. Surely it is not 

 wonderful that cherry-trees of all kinds are widely 

 dispersed, since their fruit is well known to be the 

 favorite food of various birds. Many kinds are called 

 bird-cherries, and they appropriate many more kinds, 

 which are not so called. Eating cherries is a bird- 

 like employment, and unless we disperse the seeds 

 occasionally, as they do, I shall think that the birds 

 have the best right to them. See how artfully the 

 seed of a cherry is placed in order that a bird may be 

 compelled to transport it in the very midst of a 

 tempting pericarp, so that the creature that would de 

 vour this must commonly take the stone also into its 

 mouth or bill. If you ever ate a cherry and did not 

 make two bites of it, you must have perceived it 

 right in the centre of the luscious morsel, a large 

 earthy residuum left on the tongue. We thus take 

 into our mouths cherry-stones as big as peas, a dozen 

 at once, for Nature can persuade us to do almost 

 anything when she would compass her ends. Some 

 wild men and children instinctively swallow these, as 

 the birds do when in a hurry, it being the shortest 

 way to get rid of them. Thus, though these seeds 

 are not provided with vegetable wings, Nature has 

 impelled the thrush tribe to take them into their 

 bills and fly away with them ; and they are winged 

 in another sense, and more effectually than the seeds 

 of pines, for these are carried even against the wind. 

 The consequence is, that cherry-trees grow not only 

 here but there. The same is true of a great many 

 other seeds. 



But to come to the observation which suggested 

 these remarks. As I have said, I suspect that I can 



