196 THE RING OF NATURE 



stratagem that these pulps should be a species 

 of cheap fraud, just a little flavour and a good deal 

 of water, always perfectly cheap, and sugar, which 

 is a kind of plant by product. There is no com- 

 parison in nourishment value between the flesh 

 of the plum and its kernel. As far as they dare, 

 the plants make the pulp of their fruit unwhole- 

 some. Wild fruits are sometimes emetic and 

 sometimes purgative, so that the bird that has 

 carried them off will not destroy the precious seed 

 that they have been bribed to plant. Even the 

 deadly nightshade which we fear so much is not 

 fatal to the blackbird. In fact, the bird seems to 

 enjoy it and thrive on it. Even if it entirely 

 consumes the seed of some plants there will be 

 some sticky remnant to be cleaned from the bill, 

 and thus fall at a distance on new ground. That 

 is the well-known method of travel adopted by 

 the mistletoe, and there is no doubt that it is 

 as well used by the black bryony, the guelder- 

 rose, and others. 



I see the ants laboriously trundling along great 

 seeds towards their nest, and I laugh to find once 

 more the plants at their moving. So that is how 

 the great celandine has got so far down the lane ? 

 These little beans (though they do not come from 

 a true pod) are well endowed with a wart of fleshy 

 matter called a caruncle, and the wise ant knows 

 no better way to come by this acceptable article of 

 diet than by carrying the whole seed a good way, 

 and often all the way home, before it nibbles off 



