A SHARP LOOKOUT 



south wind, these spherical packages sud- 

 denly go to pieces — explode, in fact, like 

 tiny bombshells that were fused to carry to 

 this point — and scatter their seeds to the 

 four winds. They yield at the same time 

 a fine pollen-like dust that one would sus- 

 pect played some part in fertilizing the new 

 balls, did not botany teach him otherwise. 

 At any rate, it is the only deciduous tree I 

 know of that does not let go the old seed 

 till the new is well on the way. It is plain 

 why the sugar-berry-tree or lotus holds its 

 drupes all winter : it is in order that the 

 birds may come and sow the seed. The 

 berries are like small gravel stones with a 

 sugar coating, and a bird will not eat them 

 till he is pretty hard pressed, but in late 

 fall and winter the robins, cedar-birds, and 

 bluebirds devour them readily, and of course 

 lend their wings to scatter the seed far and 

 wide. The same is true of juniper-berries, 

 and the fruit of the bitter-sweet. 



In certain other cases where the fruit 

 tends to hang on during the winter, as with 

 the bladder-nut and the honey-locust, it is 

 probably because the frost and the perpet- 

 ual moisture of the ground would rot or kill 

 the germ. To beechnuts, chestnuts, and 



191 



