236 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



into the water, are carried away by the current, and finally 

 dropped on sand banks and mud flats, where they can grow. 

 Maple seeds are dropped as soon as they are ripe, but on 

 some species of ash the seeds remain through the winter. 



3. Fruits which consist of hard seeds covered by a soft 

 juicy flesh are called berries. Of this type are the wild 

 grapes, the fruit of the Virginia creeper, the blueberry, the 

 gooseberry, the currants, and the fruit of the hackberry tree. 

 You can easily explain why such fruits as cherries and plums 

 are called stone fruits. In the cultivated and in the wild 

 apples the flesh is really an enlargement of the calyx. You 

 will see this if you split an apple lengthwise. Berries, 

 stone fruits, and the small wild apples depend on birds for dis- 

 semination. Before they are ripe, they are green like the 

 leaves, and very sour ; but when they are ready to be planted, 

 they invite the feathered gardeners by a more or less sweet 

 taste and make themselves conspicuous by a black, blue, red, 

 and occasionally by a white color. Why would yellow not 

 be a good color to attract the birds ? The birds swallow 

 the small fruits entire; the fleshy parts are digested, but 

 the hard seeds pass through the birds uninjured. As not only 

 winter and summer residents feed on such fruits, but also 

 the flocks of migrating birds, seeds are frequently dropped 

 a hundred miles, or more, from the place where they grew. 

 How could birds plant wild plums ? 



4. Such large and heavy seeds as acorns and nuts drop 

 right under the tree, and would remain there and decay if 

 gophers, mice, chipmunks, and squirrels did not covet them. 

 These animals often drop them accidentally, hide them 

 under leaves or in their burrows for their winter food, and 

 while engaged in this work they leave some in places where 

 they can grow. The writer once shot a gray squirrel and 

 found that it had a hickory nut still in its mouth when he 

 reached home with it. As hawks frequently catch such 



