FRUITS 



63 



Fig. 14. — Winged 

 fruit of the maple. 



Fig. 15. — Winged 

 fruit of the hop tree. 



Fruits, beside being seed containers, are often devices 

 for securing the distribution of seeds, a process which is 

 called dissemination or seed dispersal. 



Two questions naturally arise : (i) What are the ad- 

 vantages in having the seeds widely scattered? (2) What 

 are the ways in which fruits aid in secur- 

 ing this scattering? The answer to the 

 first your own thought will furnish. In 

 its effort to maintain the 

 race it is not enough that 

 each plant produce one 

 other. No kind of plant 

 or animal would survive 

 long at that rate. Life 

 is too uncertain. For one 

 seed that produces a new 

 plant, hundreds perish. To make sure of a new generation 

 as numerous as its predecessor, each plant must produce 

 many seeds. So each plant appears to be seeking, not 

 only to perpetuate itself, but to populate the world. Its 

 seeds, traveling far from the parent, may find lodgment 

 where none of its own kind compete with it, and, under 



these easier conditions, it may 

 establish a vigorous new colony. 

 In answer to the second ques- 

 tion, you may remember devices 

 you have seen which secure the 

 scattering of seeds. Perhaps 

 you have noticed the winged 

 fruits of the maple or of the elm. 

 (See Figures 14 and 15.) Think 

 of the wind-blown fruit of the 



