DISPERSAL OF SEEDS. 151 



attached to the coats of passing animals. 

 The greater number of the fruits which do 

 this are commonly spoken of as 4 burs.' 

 Amongst examples common in the West Indies 

 are the fruits of the 'bur-grass' and the 

 fc broom- weed ' which readily adhere to cloth- 

 ing, etc., by means of their short spines. 

 Other fruits are sticky, being covered with 

 glandular hairs, for instance 'hogweed' (Boer- 

 haavia), a not uncommon weed in cane fields, 

 and tlie 'lead-wort' (Plumbago) commonly 

 grown in gardens. 



0. The fruits mentioned in the preceding 

 paragraph are all small, dry and hard. 

 Animals also play a large part in the dis- 

 tribution of quite another set of fruits, namely' 

 those which are commonly known as suc- 

 culent or fleshy fruits. The fleshy portion 

 is usually the wall of the fruit, the seeds 

 the important part to the plant being 

 generally small and hard. Animals eat such 

 fruits for the sake of the fleshy portion, and 

 the small, hard seeds pass uninjured through 

 their bodies. Examples of such fruits are 

 numerous ; mention need only be made 

 here of the guava, wild banana and all-spice. 

 The formation of a new all-spice ' walk ' is com- 

 monly due to seeds dropped by birds, after 



