252 NATURE OF THE FRUIT. [BOOK n. 



CHAPTER X. 



OF THE FRUIT. 



THE fruit is mechanically destined as a mere protection 

 to the seed; it constitutes the principal part of the food, 

 especially in winter, of birds and small animals ; it is often 

 more ornamental than the flowers themselves, and it con- 

 tributes most materially to the necessities and luxuries of 

 mankind. When ripe, it falls from the plant, and, borne 

 down by its weight, lies on the ground at the foot of the 

 individual that produced it : there its seeds vegetate, when 

 it decays, and a crop of new individuals arises from the 

 base of the old one. But, as plants produced in such a 

 manner would soon choke and destroy each other, nature 

 has provided a multitude of ways for their dispersion. 

 Many are carried to distant spots by the animals which 

 eat them : others, such as the Samara, and the pappus of 

 Composites provided with a sort of wing, fly away upon the 

 wind to seek a distant station; others scatter their seeds 

 abroad by an explosion of the pericarp, caused by a sudden 

 contraction of the tissue; many, falling upon the surface 

 of streams, are carried away by the current ; while others 

 are dispersed by methods which it would be tedious to 

 enumerate. 



The fruit, during its growth, is supported at the expense 

 of the sap generally : but most especially of that which had 

 been previously accumulated for its maintenance. This is 

 less apparent in perennial or ligneous plants than in annual 

 ones, but is capable of demonstration in both. Knight has 

 well observed, that in annual fruit-bearing plants, such as 

 the Melon, if a fruit is allowed to form at a very early period 

 of the life of the plant, as, for instance, in the axil of the 



