spongy edible flesh. Indeed, the variety that prevails among fruits in
this respect almost defies classification: for sometimes, as in the
mulberry, the separate little fruits of several distinct flowers grow
together at last into a common berry: sometimes, as in a fig, the
general flower-stalk of several tiny one-seeded blossoms forms the
edible part: and sometimes, as in the strawberry, the true little nuts
or fruits appear as mere specks or dots on the bloated surface of the
swollen and overgrown stem, which forms the luscious morsel dear to the
human palate.

Yet in every case it is interesting to observe that, while the seeds
which depend for dispersion upon the breeze are easily detached from
the parent plant and blown about by every wind of doctrine, the seeds
or fruits which depend for their dispersion upon birds or animals
always, on the contrary, hang on to their native boughs to the very
last, till some unconscious friend pecks them off and devours them.
Haws, rose-hips, and holly-berries will wither and wilt on the tree in
mild winters, because they can't drop off of themselves without the aid
of birds, while the birds are too well supplied with other food to care
for them. One of the strangest cases of all, however, is that of the
mistletoe, which, living parasitically upon the forest-boughs and
apple-trees, would of course be utterly lost if its berries dropped
their seeds on to the ground beneath it. To avoid such a misfortune,
the mistletoe berries are filled with an exceedingly viscid and sticky
pulp, surrounding the hard little nut-like seeds: and this pulp makes
the seeds cling to the bills and feet of various birds which feed upon
the fruit, but most particularly of the missel thrush, who derives his
common English name from his devotion to the mistletoe. The birds then
carry them away unwittingly to some neighbouring tree, and rub them
off, when they get uncomfortable, against a forked branch--the exact