170 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



like coverlet. In the apple and pear the ovary 

 is inferior ; the fruit is thus crowned by the 

 remains of the calyx ; if you cut it across you 

 will find it consists of a fleshy part, which is the 

 swollen stem, enclosing the true fruit or core, 

 with a number of seeds which we call the pips. 

 All these fruits belong to the family of the roses ; 

 they serve to show the immense variety ol plan 

 and structure which occurs even in closely re- 

 lated species. Other succulent fruits of the 

 same family are the rose-hip, the haw, the 

 medlar, and the nectarine. 



Among familiar woodland fruits dispersed by 

 birds I may mention the elderberry, the dog- 

 wood, the honeysuckle, the whortleberry, the 

 holly, the cuckoo-pint, the barberry, and the 

 spindle-tree. The white berries of the mistletoe, 

 which is a parasitic plant, are eaten by the 

 missel-thrush, a bird who has a special affection 

 for this particular food. But they are very 

 sticky, and the seeds therefore adhere to the 

 bird's beak and feet. To get rid of them, he 

 rubs them off on the fork of a poplar branch, or 

 in the bark of an apple-tree, which are the exact 

 places where the mistletoe most desires to place 



I itself. Many such close correspondences between 



1 bird and fruit exist in nature. 



Our northern berries are chiefly designed to 

 be eaten by small birds like robins and haw- 

 finches. But in southern climates larger fruits 

 exist, adapted to the tastes of larger animals 

 such as parrots, toucans, hornbills, fruit-bats, 

 and monkeys. Our own small kinds can gene- 

 rally be eaten whole ? like the currant and the 



