A SHARP LOOKOUT 



south wind, these spherical packages sud- 

 denly go to pieces explode, in fact, like 

 tiny bombshells that were fused to carry to 

 this point and scatter their seeds to the 

 four winds. They yield at the same time 

 a fine pollen-like dust that one would sus- 

 pect played some part in fertilizing the new 

 balls, did not botany teach him otherwise. 

 At any rate, it is the only deciduous tree I 

 know of that does not let go the old seed 

 till the new is well on the way. It is plain 

 why the sugar-berry-tree or lotus holds its 

 drupes all winter : it is in order that the 

 birds may come and sow the seed. The 

 berries are like small gravel stones with a 

 sugar coating, and a bird will not eat them 

 till he is pretty hard pressed, but in late 

 fall and winter the robins, cedar-birds, and 

 bluebirds devour them readily, and of course 

 lend their wings to scatter the seed far and 

 wide. The same is true of juniper-berries, 

 and the fruit of the bitter-sweet. 



In certain other cases where the fruit 

 tends to hang on during the winter, as with 

 the bladder-nut and the honey-locust, it is 

 probably because the frost and the perpet- 

 ual moisture of the ground would rot or kill 

 the germ. To beechnuts, chestnuts, and 

 191 



