Strawberries. 93 



juices would be most likely to attract their attention. 

 Once more, the brightest coloured fruits would be 

 most easily seen among the tall foliage of the hedge- 

 rows, and so those berries which showed any tendency 

 towards redness of flesh would be sure to gain a point 

 in attractiveness over their greener rivals. Thus at 

 last the strawberrj- has grown into the fruit that ue 

 know so well, by constant unconscious selection of 

 the little hedgerow birds, exerted at once in favour of 

 the pulpiest, the sweetest, and the ruddiest berries. 



It is noticeable, too, that in all these particulars 

 what happens to the straw bcrrj' happens also in a 

 hundred other independent cases. Wherever animals 

 are to be enticed by plants, sugar is sure to be de- 

 veloped to entice them. It is so developed in the 

 honey of flowers, in the e.xtra-floral nectaries used for 

 attracting ants, and in the sweet secretion by which 

 the pitcher plants allure flies into their murderous 

 vessels. So, too, bright colour is commonly employed 

 to advertise the sweet material, as in the petals of 

 flowers, the skin of fruits, and the pink or purple 

 patches on the lips of the pitcher plants. On the 

 other hand, the particular way in which these allure- 

 ments are displayed by the strawberr>' is verj' dif- 

 ferent from that adopted by almost all other fruits. 

 In the closely allied raspberrj-, the pulpiness and 



