PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 149 



have even gone farther, and by means of bitter 

 secretions and stinging essential oils kept off all 

 comers. Other fruits have not gone so far, 

 although many of them try their best, with thick 

 skins impregnated with tannin, and in some cases 

 poisonous milky juices, to preserve their edible 

 seeds from destruction. Few, however, succeed in 

 this the animals have learnt to peel them and get 

 their share. 



On the other hand, a large class of fruits are 

 obviously intended to attract. It is not to the 

 advantage of a tree that its seed shall lie round 

 the trunk and be lost in the struggle for existence. 

 It has therefore followed that efforts have been 

 made to provide something to feed the animals, 

 but at the same time to protect the life-germ from 

 extinction. This is often done by covering the 

 seed with a hard shell, outside of which comes the 

 luscious pulp which forms the attraction. Birds 

 sometimes carry food to long distances, to eat at 

 leisure or to feed the young, and thus the seeds are 

 dispersed in every direction. Sometimes they are 

 eaten and ejected without injury, in fact, rather 

 with benefit as far as can be judged most of the 

 figs and loranths are examples of this. Where 

 there are bats their lurking places are often 

 strewed with fruit, more or less disfigured on the 



