Seed- Ca rriers 271 



them, are more or less hard, and some stone-like. 

 Even the seeds of elms, firs and ashes, often escape 

 not merely uninjured, but actually helped by being 

 swallowed ; and the same is true, in a much more 

 marked degree, of the stones of the cherry, sloe, rasp- 

 berry, blackberry, and the seeds of the apple, and the 

 tiny nuts of the strawberry. 



In some cases birds render a positive service to man, 

 also, by swallowing and scattering the seeds of plants 

 which he cultivates. The cinnamon-tree, for instance, 

 has been introduced in this way into the interior of 

 Ceylon from the gardens on the coast ; and as the wild 

 trees are just as good as the cultivated ones for com- 

 mercial purposes, their shoots are regularly cut for the 

 trade. 



So, too, with the pimento, allspice, or Jamaica 

 pepper-tree. All the present ' pimento walks ' of 

 Jamaica, as the plantations are called, have been sown 

 by birds ; for though the plants can be raised in 

 nurseries in large numbers by careful treatment, the 

 planters are of opinion that the seeds are better pre- 

 pared by the birds. And why should they incur the 

 trouble and expense of this ' careful treatment,' when 

 the birds do all that is necessary ? 



When a new 'walk' is wanted, all that is necessary 

 is to enclose a piece of waste ground near an old 

 * walk.' The birds eagerly eat the fruit when ripe, and 

 the seeds are dropped, with the result that twelve 

 months after the first rains abundance of young plants 

 are to be seen growing vigorously in all parts of the 

 new enclosure. If not enclosed, the plants would be 

 eaten off or trodden down by wild animals ; but this 

 amount of protection is all that they require. 



