66 
SEED DISPERSAL. 
merits by painting the berries first dark red, and then dark 
purple, when they are good to eat. But is the plant made 
expressly to produce berries, just to feed birds and chil- 
dren ? If that be all, why are seeds formed in the berries 
in such large numbers ? No ! They produce berries that 
contain seeds, and from these seeds are to grow more 
bushes. Then why should not the berries always remain 
bitter or hard, so that nothing would touch 
them ? If we may say so, the plant pro- 
duces sweet and showy berries on purpose 
to be eaten, that the seeds may be carried 
away. What becomes of the seeds ? Each 
one is enclosed in a hard, tough covering, 
which protects it from destruction in the 
stomachs of many birds and some other ani- 
mals. The seeds are well distributed by the animals that 
eat the berries. The brilliant colors of ripe berries say to 
bird and child : “ Here we are ; eat us, for we are good.” 
The sweet pulp pays the birds for distributing the seeds, 
else they would not be so distributed. The seeds are as 
well provided for locomotion as the ticks, the mites, and 
the spiders, and when ready to go, the berries flaunt their 
colors to attract attention. You see, then, that although 
the old parent bush cannot change its place, young bushes 
grow from the tips of the branches, and seedlings spring 
up at long distances from their old homes. 
Sparrows, finches, and similar birds in the winter eat 
and destroy seeds of grasses and weeds, while the same 
Fig. 50. — Raspberry, 
ripened, picked, and 
ready to be eaten. 
