GUELDER ROSE. 99 



the entire vessel, seed and all ; digests the 

 pulpy covering ; and rejects the hard seed 

 in circumstances admirably adapted for its 

 growth. Plants of this sort, therefore, lay 

 themselves out to allure the dispersing 

 birds, and accordingly fill their fruits with 

 sweet juices and bright colouring, just as they 

 render their flowers attractive with honey 

 and surround them with brilliant petals to 

 allure the fertilising insects. Moreover, they 

 need not now produce much more than one 

 seed in each fruit, because the seeds have so 

 much a better chance of growing up than they 

 used to have. Hence most berries contain 

 very few seeds, often only one, and in many 

 cases the numerous cells of the dry ancestral 

 capsule get aborted in an early stage, because 

 they are no longer needed by the juicy modern 

 fruit. Almost all the honeysuckle tribe (to 

 which, though you would hardly think it, the 

 guelder rose belongs) have succulent fruits ; 

 and their seeds are solitary, or at least very 

 few in each cell. So that the three cells of 



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