GATHERED BY THE WAY 



or bunch-berry, in the woods, to the red thorn in 

 the fields, every fruit-bearing plant and shrub and 

 tree seems to advertise itself to the passer-by in its 

 bright hues. Apparently there is no other use to 

 the plant of the fleshy pericarp than to serve as a 

 bait or wage for some animal to come and sow its 

 seed. Why, then, should it not take on these allur- 

 ing colors to help along this end? And yet there 

 comes the thought, may not this scarlet and gold of 

 the berries and tree fruits be the inevitable result of 

 the chemistry of ripening, as it is with the autumn 

 foKage? What benefit to the tree, directly or in- 

 directly, is all this wealth of color of the autumn ? 

 Many of the toadstools are highly colored also ; how 

 do they profit by it ? Many of the shells upon the 

 beach are very showy ; to what end? The cherry- 

 birds find the pale ox-hearts as readily as they do the 

 brilliant Murillos, and the dull blue cedar berries 

 and the duller drupes of the lotus are not concealed 

 from them nor from the robins. But it is true that 

 the greenish white grapes in the vineyard do not 

 suffer from the attacks of the birds as do the blue 

 and red ones. The reason probably is that the birds 

 regard them as unripe. The white grape is quite 

 recent, and the birds have not yet " caught on." 



Poisonous fruits are also highly colored; to what 



end ? In Bermuda I saw on low bushes great masses 



of what they called "pigeon-berries" of a brilliant 



yellow color and very tempting, yet I was assured 



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