INFANCY AMONG LOWER ANIMALS 



295 



ufacture. The seed is protected while within the fruit. It has 

 been supplied with food which it can use long after it has left the 

 ovary, and it has been supplied by the parent plant with some 

 adaptation in order to get away to a more favorable environment. 

 Infancy among lower animals. Frogs, fish, and other water 

 animals usually produce large numbers of eggs and sperms and 

 discharge these into the surrounding water. Probably many thou- 

 sand more sperms than eggs are produced. Even though a large 

 proportion of the eggs may become fertilized, most of the sperms 

 die as they greatly outnumber the eggs. Probably only a small 

 proportion of the fertilized eggs ever get far beyond the earliest 

 stages of development They are frequently devoured by animals 

 in the water. Because fertilization takes place in the water and 

 the embryos develop externally, a great majority of the young 

 die or are destroved. 



H. Armstrong Roberts 

 The mother hen watches over, shelters, and helps the chicks gather food. 



