98 



VIGNETTES FROM NATURE, 



the undeveloped fruit, whereas the ripe berry 

 has only one, with a single seed. Even in 

 the full-blown flowers here two of the cells 

 have atrophied, though there are still three 

 little stigmas or sensitive surfaces for the 

 pollen, as though the plant did not know 

 its own mind, and rather expected to have 

 three seeds in each berry, instead of one. 

 This curious indecision is doubtless due to a 

 certain historical fact in the ancestry of the 

 guelder rose. Once upon a time, no doubt, 

 the progenitors of the guelder rose had small 

 dry capsules instead of berries, with a number 

 of seeds in each cell. Such a plant as the 

 red campion still retains this habit; and, 

 therefore, as the seeds merely fall out loose 

 upon the ground, it is necessary to produce a 

 great number of them, in order to secure a 

 fair chance that one at least shall fall upon 

 a fitting spot for its germination. But in 

 some plants the seed-covering grows soft and 

 succulent, becoming what in ordinary parlance 

 we call a fruit or berry. Then a bird swallows 



