THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT REPRODUCTION 



79 



small and dry with hooked or barbed outgrowths which catch in 

 an animal's fur (fig. 52). Fruits with such spines and hooks are 

 numerous, as anyone knows who has taken a hike through the 

 woods in autumn and returned with his clothing covered with 

 tenacious burrs and ticks; a proof of the effectiveness of this 

 method of fruit dispersal. 



Of greater interest to man, since they include the majority of 

 our edible fruits, are those which — like the fruit produced by the 



B 



Fig. 53. — A berry is a fleshy animal-dispersed fruit with the seeds buried 

 in soft pulp which is often edible; such is found in the grape (A), the date (B), 

 and the tomato (C). 



apple blossom — become large and fleshy in order to act their part 

 as a lure to get animals to eat them and thus bring about seed 

 dispersal. In such fleshy fruits, the ovary and sometimes 

 adjoining flower parts, grow into colorful and edible organs 

 whose chief function is to induce a curious animal to eat them. 

 Thus our habit of eating fruit is definitely associated with the 

 universal scheme of things, perfected for the purposes of seed 

 dispersal. In many fruits, the seeds are so large or so well pro- 

 tected by a hard wall, that the animal discards them after eating 



