Seed-Scattering 215 



wants the seed, not the husk or shell, and therefore he 

 cultivates and increases the size of the seeds. But the 

 seeds of pears, grapes, pine-apples, oranges, dates, are 

 not what he wants; and in some of the best sorts of all 

 these he has so cultivated the ovary or fleshy envelope, 

 at the expense of the seeds, that these have almost, if not 

 quite, disappeared. 



But even when the plant is left in a state of nature, 

 and allowed to produce seed in abundance, it often needs 

 further help, if its progeny are to grow up healthy, and 

 vigorous enough to hold their own among their many 

 competitors. The seed must be scattered. 



The gardener often finds it advisable to get his seed 

 from some little distance, the plants raised from it being 

 distinctly better than those grown from seed ripened in the 

 same place. This is one reason why it is for the plant's 

 good that its seed should be scattered; and here, of 

 course, we mean by the "plant" the race, and not the 

 individual. But there are many other reasons. 



If seeds are dropped close round the parent-plant, in a 

 confined space, they grow up in a crowd, and there is a 

 desperate struggle for existence. Being all of the same 

 species, they all want the same kinds of food, and none 

 have much advantage over the rest. A few seeds may 

 have been a trifle larger, and may produce seedlings a 

 trifle stronger, and better able to battle for what they 

 want, but the difference is usually slight, and the chances 

 are that all will grow up weakly. 



Where seedlings are crowded together there must 

 always be a struggle as to which shall survive, but it is 

 much more severe where all are of the same sort. Where 

 they are mixed, some will have advantages. They may 



