WAYS OF NATURE 



seek concealment also ? It is Just as helpless as the 

 others, and is just as sweet-meated. It occurs to me 

 that birds can do nothing with it on account of its 

 thick shell; it needs, therefore, to attract some four- 

 footed creature that will carry it away from the par- 

 ent tree, and this is done by the mice and the squir- 

 rels. But if this is the reason of its whiteness, there 

 is the dusky butternut and the black walnut, both 

 more or less concealed by their color, and yet having 

 the same need of some creature to scatter them. 



The seeds of the maple, and of the ash and the 

 linden, are obscurely colored, and they are winged ; 

 hence they do not need the aid of any creature in 

 their dissemination. To say that this is the reason 

 of their dull, unattractive tints would be an expla- 

 nation on a par with much that one hears about 

 the significance of animal and vegetable coloration. 

 Why is corn so bright colored, and wheat and barley 

 so dull, and rice so white? No doubt there is a 

 reason in each case, but I doubt if that reason has 

 any relation to the surrounding animal Ufe. 



The new Botany teaches that the flowers have 

 color and perfume to attract the insects to aid in 

 their fertilization — a need so paramount with all 

 plants, because plants that are fertilized by aid of 

 the wind have very inconspicuous flowers. Is it 

 equally true that the high color of most fruits is to 

 attract some hungry creature to come and eat them 

 and thus scatter the seeds ? From the dwarf cornel, 

 252 



