198 ESSENTIALS OF BOTANY 



seeds. It is worth while, therefore, for the student to ask 

 himself some such questions as these : ^ 



(1) Why is the pulp of so many fruits eatable ? 



(2) Why are the seeds of many pulpy fruits bitter or 

 otherwise unpleasantly flavored, as in the orange ? 



(3) Why are the seeds or the layers surrounding the 

 seeds of many pulpy fruits too hard to be chewed, or 

 digested, as in the date and the peach ? 



(4) Why are the seeds of some pulpy fruits too small 

 to be easily chewed, and also indigestible, as in the fig 

 and the currant? 



(5) Account for the not infrequent presence of currant 

 bushes or asparagus plants in such localities as the forks 

 of large trees, sometimes at a height of twenty, thirty, or 

 more feet above the ground. 



Careful observation of the neighborhood of peach, plum, 

 cherry, or apple trees at the season when the fruit is ripe 

 and again during the following spring, and an examina- 

 tion into the distribution of wild apple or pear trees in 

 pastures where they occur, will help the student who can 

 make such observations to answer the preceding questions. 

 So, too, would an examination of the habits of fruit^eating 

 quadrupeds and of the crop and gizzard of fruit^eating 

 birds during the season when the fruits upon which they 

 feed are ripe. ' 



244. Seed-Carrying purposely done by Animals. — In the 

 cases referred to in the preceding sections, animals have 

 been seen to act as unconscious or even unwilling seed- 

 carriers. Sometimes, however, they carry off seeds with 

 the plan of storing them for food. Ants drag away with 



1 See Kerner and Oliver's Natural History of Plants, Vol. II, pp. 442-450. 



