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CHAPTER IX. 
OF THE FRUIT. 
The fruit is mechanically destined as a mere protection 
to the seed; it constitutes the principal part of the food, 
especially in winter, of birds and small animals ; it is often 
more ornamental than the flowers themselves, and it con- 
tributes most materially to the necessities and luxuries of 
mankind. When ripe, it falls from the plant, and, borne 
down by its weight, lies on the ground at the foot of the 
individual that produced it : here its seeds vegetate, when it 
decays, and a crop of new individuals arises from the base 
of the old one. But, as plants produced in such a manner 
would soon choke and destroy each other, nature has pro- 
vided a multitude of ways for their dispersion. Many are 
carried to distant spots by the animals which eat them : 
others, such as the samara, and the pappus of Composite, 
provided with a sort of wing, fly away upon the wind to seek 
a distant station ; others scatter their seeds abroad by an 
explosion of the pericarp, caused by a sudden contraction 
of the tissue; many, falling upon the surface of streams, 
are carried along by the current ; while others are dis- 
persed by a variety of methods which it would be tedious 
to enumerate. 
The fruit, during its growth, is supported at the expense 
of the sap generally : but most especially of that which had 
been previously accumulated for its maintenance. This is 
less apparent in perennial or ligneous plants than in annual 
ones, but is capable of demonstration in both. Knight has 
well observed, that in annual fruit-bearing plants, such as 
the Melon, if a fruit is allowed to form at a very early period 
of the life of the plant, as, for instance, in the axil of the 
third leaf, it rarely sets or arrives at maturity, but falls off 
