2o8 Flowers and their Pedicrrees. 



t> 



to swell out their seed receptacle into a sweet pulpy 

 mass, and if this mass happened to attract birds, the 

 potentillas would gain an advantage by their new 

 habit, and would therefore quickly develop into wild 

 strawberries as we now get them. But the difference 

 between the strawberry fruit and the potentilla fruit 

 is to the last a very slight one. Both have a number 

 of little dry seeds seated on a receptacle ; only, in 

 the strawberry the receptacle grows red and succu- 

 lent, while in the potentilla it remains small and 

 stalk-like. The red colour and sweet juice of the 

 strawberry serve to attract the birds which aid in dis- 

 persing the seed, just as the white or yellow petals 

 and the sweet honey of the potentilla blossoms serve 

 to attract the insects which aid in fertilising the 

 flowers. In this way all nature is one continual 

 round of interaction and mutual dependence between 

 the animal and vegetable worlds. 



The potentillas and the strawberry plant are all of 

 them mere low creeping or skulking herbs, without 

 woody stems or other permanent branches. But 

 when we get to the development of the brambles or 

 blackberry bushes, we arrive at a higher and more 

 respectable division of the rose family. There are 

 two or three intermediate forms, such as water-avens 

 and herb-bennet— tall, branching, weedy-looking 



