78 LETTERS TO MARCO xn 



Many plants depend on the edible char- 

 acter of the coverings of the seeds for the dis- 

 semination of the seed itself; the rose family 

 do so almost entirely, birds and man stepping 

 in to assist as it were. Hips and haws, plums, 

 apples and pears, currants, gooseberries, and 

 elders, are often sown by birds. I am con- 

 tinually finding the three last growing in odd 

 places, sown by the birds. 



The largest flower does not by any means 

 always have the largest seed. Butcher's- 

 broom, which is a curious evergreen of the 

 lily tribe, and nearly related to asparagus, 

 has a flower no bigger than a pin's head right 

 in the centre of the green leaf, yet the seed, 

 a solitary one, is as large as a pea, and con- 

 tained in a crimson berry still larger. Then 

 there is the fig. The bloom of this I can never 

 discover at all ; the little green figs seem to 

 appear with the buds at the close of winter, 

 and go on swelling up until they ripen, full of 

 hundreds of seeds. I am very partial to 

 green figs, and have a tree in a cool green- 



