246 NATUEE STUDIES. 



seem impossible ; but a little consideration will show 

 us a way out of the difficulty. Most plants, it is true, 

 can only lose by allowing their seeds to be perceived 

 and eaten by animals. In such cases the fruit, be it 

 pod or capsule, is usually inconspicuous in colour, and 

 drops its tiny little seeds quietly out upon the ground 

 beneath. Those plants which best succeed in divert- 

 ing the attention of seed-eating birds or mammals 

 from their fruits, outlive, in the long run, their less 

 adapted neighbours ; and so the survival of the fittest 

 has brought it about that ninety-nine kinds out of a 

 hundred in our own day have unnoticeable little green 

 or brown seed vessels, such- as those of the chickweed, 

 the pimpernel, and the clover tribe, which nobody but 

 a botanist ever observes at all. Suppose, however, 

 that any plant happens to have its seeds covered with 

 a moderately hard and indigestible outer coat, would 

 it not then be rather benefited than otherwise by 

 having these seeds enclosed in a soft and juicy bed of 

 edible pulp ? For in that case birds and other animals 

 might eat the seeds, fruit and all, for the sake of the 

 pulpy covering ; and as the hard little shell would 

 protect the young embryo within, this vital part would 

 not be digested, but would pass uninjured through the 

 creature's body. By such an arrangement the plant 

 would not only get its seeds dispersed in- itself a 

 most important matter but would also have the 

 young seedling well manured and started in life under 

 unusually favourable auspices. If such a tendency were 

 ever to be set up even in the slightest degree by a 



