HOW PLANTS ARE SCATTERED 



385 



seeds of many pulpy fruits too hard to be chewed, or 

 digested, as in the date and the peach? 



(4) Why are the seeds of some pulpy fruits too small 

 to be easily chewed, and also indigestible, as in the fig 

 and the currant? 



(5) Account for the not infrequent presence of currant 

 bushes or asparagus plants in such localities as the forks 

 of large trees, sometimes at a height of twenty, thirty, or 

 more feet above the ground (Fig. 274). 



Careful observation of the neighborhood of peach, plum, 

 cherry, or apple trees at the season when the fruit is ripe 

 and again during the following spring, and an examina- 

 tion into the distribution of wild 

 apple or pear trees in pastures 

 where they occur, will help the 

 student who can make such ob- 

 servations to answer the preced- 

 ing questions. So, too, would 

 an examination of the habits of 

 fruit-eating quadrupeds and of 

 the crop and gizzard of fruit- 

 eating birds during the season 

 when the fruits upon which they 

 feed are ripe. 



454. Seed-Carrying purposely 

 done by Animals. In the cases 

 referred to in the preceding sec- 

 tions, animals have been seen 

 to act as unconscious or even unwilling seed-carriers. 

 Sometimes, however, they carry off seeds with the plan 

 of storing them for food. Ants drag away with them to 



FIG. 274. Red Rasp- 

 berry Bush, in Fork 

 of a Maple. 



