ON THE DISPERSAL OF SEEDS BY MAMMALS. 23 



of which are more or less concealed among the leaves or 

 in the ground. Such is Ciirciiligo siiuiatrana which has 

 small inconspicuous sweet fruits with very small seeds. These 

 disappear as soon as ripe, and are certainly eaten by some 

 rodent. The Scitaminece again have fruits which are much 

 sought by these little animals. Most of the junglelovingspecies 

 have the fruits at the base of the stems as ArnoiniLm, Zingiber. 



The fruits are inconspicuous, but in many cases the bracts 

 which enclose them are red. This colouring, however, bears 

 rather a relation to the floral stage of development and is 

 intended to make the flow^ers more conspicuous to the insect 

 fertilizer. When the plant is in fruit, the bracts have usually 

 become shabby and inconspicuous. 



Nicolaia Jieinisphoerica and Amoinuni laterale are two 

 species which have plain green fruits, in the former in a head 

 on a short, stout stem, in the latter in a stout, cylindric, lateral 

 spike about a foot above the ground. These fruits are 

 devoured by some rodent (probably a squirrel) as soon as they 

 are ripe. 



There is a great contrast between the fruits of these 

 jungle gingers where the inflorescence is a compact head and 

 radical or low down, and those which live in more open 

 country and possess terminal inflorescence. In the former the 

 fruits are inconspicuous and often green, while in the latter 

 they are either showy and orange as in the Alpinias of the 

 river banks, or they are white in the plants of the open jungle 

 as in the case of Clinogyjie and Aipiiiia galajiga. 



The squirrels {Sciurus) probably disperse more seeds than 

 the Miiridoe, and being diurnal can more easily be seen 

 at work. They do not, as a rule, eat sweet or juicy fruits, but 

 those of firmer texture, as those of the Daroo {Sideroxylon 

 stmdaicitni) y Marlea nobilis, and Pyreiiaria actnni7iata. 

 All these are inconspicuous, small, green fruits containing 

 hard seeds, and it is very common to find gnawn fruits lying 

 some way off from the trees, usually with the seeds uninjured. 

 In many cases a tree is completely denuded of fruit as fast 

 as it is ripe, and the squirrels carry it so far that it is impos- 

 sible to find any. To some of the introduced fruits they are very 



