xviii DISPERSAL AND PROTECTION 



immediate vicinity of the parent, and this were 

 continued year after year, it is easy to see that 

 there would soon be no room for new growths. 

 The necessity of a means of dispersal seems to 

 be fundamental to the fruit or seed. Examine 

 fruit after fruit or seed after seed, and the varied 

 and adequate structures for their dissemination 

 are found to be most interesting. 



The winged fruit of the maple, the tufted seed 

 of the milkweed, and the plumed fruit of the 

 clematis are a few of numerous examples of 

 fruits fitted for dispersal by means of the wind. 



Some fruits have mechanical devices which 

 throw their seeds to a necessarily short distance. 

 Have you not violated the command of the 

 touch-me-not, just to see the parts of the pod 

 curl up and throw out the seeds ? This method 

 of dispersal is not especially advantageous, and 

 is confined to comparatively few plants. It is 

 interesting to note that these, as a rule, grow in 

 spots sheltered from the wind, where its agency 

 would be unavailing in scattering their seeds. 



Water is an agent in transporting a relatively 

 small number of fruits. The cocoanut is admi- 

 rably adapted for this means of dispersal, and 

 the existence of the cocoanut palm on widely 

 separated coral islands is interesting in this 

 connection. 



