90 THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. 



berry which we eat. Only, in the raspberry 

 the separate fruitlets are all crowded close 

 together into a single united mass, while in 

 the strawberry they are scattered about 

 loosely, and embedded in the soft flesh of the 

 receptacle. The blackberry is another close 

 relative ; but in its fruit the little pulpy fruit- 

 lets cling to the receptacle, so that we pick 

 and eat them both together ; whereas in the 

 raspberry the receptacle pulls out easily, and 

 leaves a thimble-shaped hollow in the middle 

 of the berry. Each of these little peculiarities 

 has a special meaning of its own in the history 

 of the different plants. 



Yet the main object attained by all is in 

 the end precisely similar. Strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, and blackberries all belong to the 

 class of attractive fruits. They survive in 

 virtue of the attention paid to them by birds 

 and small animals. Just as the wild straw- 

 berry which I picked in the hedgerow the 

 other day procures the dispersion of its hard 

 and indigestible fruitlets by getting them 



