The Strange Story of the Flowers 



service. The birds bide the time when a Mush 

 upon the fruit betrays its ripeness. Then the 

 cherries are greedily devoured, and their seed, 

 preserved from digestion in their stony casts 

 are borne over hill, dale, and river to some islet 

 or brookside where a sprouting cherry plant will 

 be free from the stifling rivalries suffered by its 

 parent. Yoked in harness with sheep, ox, and 

 bird as planter is yonder nimble squirrel. We 

 need not begrudge him the store of nuts he hides. 

 He will forget some of them, he will be prevented 

 by fright or frost from nibbling yet more, and so 

 without intending it he will ensure for others and 

 himself a sure succession of acornsandbutternuts. 



Very singular are the seeds that have come to 

 resemble beetles ; among these may be mentioned 

 the seeds of the castor-oil plant and of the Iatro- 

 pha. The pod of the Biscrrula looks like a 

 worm, and a worm half-coiled might well have 

 served as a model for the mimicry of the Scor- 

 piurus vcnniculata. All these are much more 

 likely to enlist the services of birds than if their 

 resemblances to insects were less striking. 



Nature elsewhere rich in hints to the gar- 

 dener and the farmer is not silent here. A 

 lesson plainly taught in all this apparatus 

 for the dispersal of seeds is that the more 

 various the planting the fuller the harvest. 

 Now that from the wheat fields comes a cry 

 of disappearing gains, it is time to heed the 

 story told in the unbroken prairie that diversity 

 in sowing means wealth in reaping. 

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