Children  are  now  taught  in  several  excellent  little  books  on
"  Nature-Study  "  that  fleshy  fruits  are  specially  adapted  to  be  eaten
by  animals  to  secure  the  distribution  of  the  seeds.  We  read  in  one
book  that  plants  produce  these  fruits  "  on  purpose  to  be  eaten,"  in
another  that  they  are  "  intended  to  be  eaten,"  and  in  a  third  that
the  seed-coverings  are  adaptations,  all  with  the  ulterior  object  of
distribution  by  frugivorous  animals.  I  must  be  pardoned  if  I
venture  to  express  my  dissent  from  these  statements,  more  espe-
cially since  they  are  made  by  authors  from  whom  it  might  be
thought  almost  impertinent  for  me  to  differ.  Yet  authority  can
be  claimed  for  holding  the  opposite  view.
When  the  botanist  speaks  of  "  useless  secretions  "  in  a  plant,  he
is  alluding  amongst  other  things  to  the  sugar  and  organic  acids  of
fruits.  "  How  and  why  all  these  substances  originate  is,"  as  Pro-
fessor Sachs  observed  in  the  work  before  quoted,  "  not  known."  It
is,  however,  suggested  by  Dr.  Kerner,  in  his  Natural  History  of
Plants  (Engl.  edit,  i,  460—462),  that  such  secretions,  though  useless
to  plants,  may  exist  for  the  purpose  of  alluring  animals  to  assist  in
seed-dispersal.  There  are  some  botanists,  it  may  be  remarked,
that  would  reject  such  a  view  of  the  nature  of  fruits.     Dr.  Stapf  in


102  A  NATURALIST  IN  THE   PACIFIC  chap.
