122 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



from one flower to another flower of the same species. 

 Colour in flowers, then, has a purpose all undreamt of 

 by the older botanists. 



What of fruits ? Colour here, in the logical sequence 

 of events, must be credited with a purpose also. Let 

 us see what that design may be. When you look at 

 an apple or orange you are struck by the apparently 

 big size of the edible part of the fruit, and by the 

 relatively small size of the seeds. Compared with, 

 say, the fruits of a buttercup, represented by the 

 collection of little dry green bodies borne on the end 

 of the flower stalk, the apple, orange, peach, plum, and 

 cherry are grandiose in the extreme. The apple sub- 

 stance does not nourish the seed. There is no question 

 of nutrition involved in the matter at all. The seeds 

 are all ready to produce the new plants, and lie con- 

 cealed within the apple, and cherry or plum stone, 

 waiting their season and opportunity. 



Why, then, all this big growth of eatable material ? 

 The answer is, " For the birds and insects and for 

 any other animal agencies which will help the plant 

 on its way of life." ' The blackbirds that peck at the 

 peaches and apples are Nature's servitors. They come 

 for their food to the gardener's preserves, and as they 

 split up the dainty succulent fruit, they liberate the 

 seeds, and thus secure the prospect of fresh genera- 

 tions of plants. Here, then, is a philosophy of fleshy 

 fruits for your consideration, and in it is involved a 

 philosophy of coloured fruits as well. The colour 

 attracts, and the fruit-substance rewards, the birds : 

 and the plant gains through the liberation of its seeds 

 and through the chances thus acquired of an early and 

 satisfactory development in the soil. 



The holly-berries, like the rowans and barberry 



