96 ASSOCIATION OF ORGANISMS—THE WEB OF LIFE 
in which is contained a dormant plantlet, that has resulted from 
the fertilization of an egg-cell. The fertilizing process stimulates 
the growth of various parts external to the ovules, leading to the 
production of what may broadly be called a “fruit”, which for 
our present purpose may be considered as a seed-carrier. A 
cherry or plum, for example, is a fruit, within which is a single 
seed—the “stone”. A long account of the different kinds of 
fruit would be out of place here, but it may be well to add that 
many are hard and dry, e.g. hazel-nuts (of which the “kernels” 
are the seeds), poppy-‘‘ heads”, and the so-called “seeds” of Sun- 
flower or Carrot. 
The dispersal of seeds in many plants results from the fact 
that a considerable number of animals are fruit-eaters. And in 
such cases the seeds being protected by hard coats often escape 
digestion. It would appear that the attractive colours and 
palatable qualities of numerous fruits have been evolved with 
direct reference to this. While still unripe such fruits are incon- 
spicuous and more or less nauseous, but become extremely 
conspicuous by the time they are ready for consumption, thus 
advertising their desirable properties as articles of diet. Though 
monkeys and other fruit-eating mammals no doubt largely assist 
in plant dispersal, birds seem to play a more important part in 
the matter. Kerner made a large number of experiments which 
tend to prove this. He found, for example, that the hard-coated 
seeds of stone-fruits and berries passed quite uninjured through 
the bodies of ravens and jackdaws; also that the blackbird, song- 
thrush, rock-thrush, and robin, which eagerly devour fleshy fruits, 
throw up the seeds if these are large, as in Barberry and Privet. 
The fate of small seeds swallowed by the last four birds is thus 
described by him (in Zhe Natural History of Plants):—“ Of the 
fruits and seeds which passed through the intestine of one or 
other of these birds, 75 per cent germinated in the case of the 
blackbird, 85 per cent in the case of the thrush, 88 per cent in 
the case of the rock-thrush, and 80 per cent in the case of the 
robin. . . . From these experiments it is evident that the dispersal 
of edible fruits through the agency of thrushes and blackbirds is 
not, as was formerly supposed, an exceptional phenomenon obtain- 
ing in the mistletoe only, but one that may take place in the case 
of many other plants, and other observations prove that, as a 
matter of fact, it does take place.” 
