SEPTEMBER FRUITS. 113 
berry, abundant in pastures, are sometimes gathered 
carelessly with the huckleberries which they slightly 
resemble. The two baneberries (Actga alba, Bigel. 
and A. spicata, L., var. rubra, Ait.) sometimes persist 
until September and are certain to be noticed if at all 
abundant. On the floor of the moist woodlands lie the 
creeping vines of the partridge-berry, of which the 
scarlet drupe crowned with the calyx teeth of two 
flowers forms a good illustration of a multiple or col- 
lective fruit. 
These are not all the fruits which September yields, 
but they are enough to show the wealth which crowns 
this part of the year. The nuts of the hickories, hazels, 
chestnut, butternut and beech are now nearly ripe, but 
need the keen touch of frost before they reach their 
prime. The arrangement by which the fall of leaves from 
their branches, of acorns from their cups, of fruits of all 
sorts is brought about, is one which may well set the 
thoughtful mind on fruitful inquiry. When Sir Isaac 
Newton, sitting under that now famous apple-tree, 
asked why an apple falls to the ground, and answered 
his own question by saying that the earth attracts it, 
he was looking at the question from an entirely dif- 
ferent point from that taken by the botanist, who would 
say that the fall of the apple depends on the presence 
and action of certain cells at the base: of the stem, 
15 
