12 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



riage relations of the flowers and insects, and I 

 shall explain at some detail in later portions of 

 this little work some of the most curious and in- 

 teresting of such devices. 



Again, after the plant has had its flower ferti- 

 lised, and has set its seed, it has to place its young 

 ones out in the world to the greatest advantage. 

 If it merely drops them under its own branches, 

 they may not thrive at all ; it may have im- 

 poverished the soil already of certain things 

 which are necessary for that particular kind, ow- 

 ing to causes to be explained hereafter; and even 

 where this is not the case, the surrounding soil 

 may be so fully occupied by other plants that the 

 poor little seedlings get no chance of establishing 

 themselves. To meet such emergencies, plants 

 have invented all sorts of clever dodges for dis- 

 persing their seeds, into the nature of which we 

 will go in full in the sequel. Thus, some of them 

 put feathery tops to their seeds or fruits, like the 

 thistle and the dandelion, the willow and the 

 cotton-bush, by means of which they float lightly 

 on the air, and are wafted by the wind to new 

 and favourable situations. Others, again, bribe 

 animals to disperse them, by the allurement of 

 sweet and pulpy fruits, like the strawberry or the 

 orange; and in all these instances, though the 

 fruit or outer coat is edible, the actual seed itself 

 is hard and indigestible, like the orange-pip, or 

 is covered with a solid envelope like the cherry- 

 stone. Numerous other examples we shall see 

 by and by in their proper place. For the present, 

 we have only to remember that plants to some 

 extent provide beforehand for their children, and 

 in many cases take care to set them out in life to 

 the best possible advantage. 



