268 GENERAL BOTANY 



make the seeds conspicuous. Again the seeds of the 

 common Wattle, ACACIA MELANOXYLON, are jet black 

 and stand out very clearly against the white inside of 

 the pod, and are made still more conspicuous by the 

 long red funicles. They too, like that of ADENAN- 

 THERA, hang long in the pod. 



There are many instances of this to be found among 

 Indian plants, and in the same way we find often 

 coloured fruits rendered more conspicuous by the 

 arrangement of the back-ground of leaves. 



10. In many cases it is, perhaps, not from curi- 

 osity but because mistaking it for some small insect, 

 that a bird picks up a highly coloured seed. The 

 castor-oil seed has a decided resemblance to a ground 

 beetle ; the regularity of the marking of the rounder 

 surface, suggests a beetle's wing-cases, the caruncle 

 its head. It may be that birds occasionally mistake 

 them for beetles, but finding the seed-coat too hard 

 to crush, drop them again. The seed here does not 

 stay in its pod, but falls as soon as ripe to the ground. 

 The ' seeds ' (achenes) of the common garden Marigold, 

 CALENDULA OFFiciNALis, are so like fat green 

 caterpillars as to have deceived people when looking 

 at them even in the palm of the hand. These achenes 

 again do not remain long on the plant, but soon fall 

 to the ground. 



It was remarked above that small plants with hairy 

 seeds and fruits that are adapted to distribution by 

 wind, are commoner in open spaces than in woods, 

 and if we think of the plants which have fleshy fruits 

 or conspicuous seeds, we shall find that they are in 

 early all cases trees or large shrubs, or, are herbs and 



