A CARNIVAL OF GOLD 125 



Next higher in the scheme are the black and red rasp- 

 berries, in which nature has tried still another plan of 

 setting every seed in its own delicious cup of juice. Those 

 of the strawberries are gathered over the surface of one 

 pulpy shape. By their peculiar arrangement the black 

 and red raspberries are enabled to get along with fewer 

 seeds, protecting them with the thorns from all but the 

 birds and daring human hands, making a brave headway 

 in the struggle for existence. 



The haw;% white thorns, and dog roses bear a fruit 

 which is a modified berry with fleshy envelope to invite 

 biids to distribution. If the imagination can still hold 

 fast to the analogy, slight though the thread may seem, 

 it can travel to the plum tree, the cherry, and the wild 

 apple in the grove, on to the queen of the royal line of the 

 rose family the true rose of the garden. 



The wild cherry and the plum mark the greatest econ- 

 omy of seed. Returning to the little red strawberry 

 nestling among its leaves, one may count half a hundred 

 seeds, perhaps more, on its fleshy pulp; the raspberry at 

 its best may have twoscore, and the apple six to ten, and 

 the haw but two, and plvm and cherry but one. 



"It is a wonder that pygmy man wonders," meditates 

 the philosopher. And in a wild flight of the imagination 

 we venture a query if in this vast mysterious scheme 

 nature herself is learning by experiment, and playing with 

 the breeding of fruits to discover where energy may be 



