From the end of September onward the number of wild flowers is rapidly decreasing, but still there is much to be seen that will be interesting to the observant student of Nature. Many of the summer flowers are quite over, while others continue to bloom till, at last, they succumb to the intensifying frosts; but hundreds of species of the summer-flowering plants are now in fruit, and some of these are almost as interesting in this stage as when in flower. Many plants will have been observed in flower before any of their fruits were fully formed, but autumn is the season when a large number of these may be seen in full fruit, and watched as they make arrangements for the dispersal of their seeds. We have already given (p. 12) an outline classification of the various kinds of fruits, and if the reader will study this during the autumn months, and examine the field and woodland plants that fall in his way, he will find abundance of work awaiting him on every country ramble. A large number of wind-dispersed fruits and seeds are ripe long before the autumn sets in, and have already been distributed by the summer breezes; but now, with fewer flowers to attract attention, one can give more time to the observations of the movements of tufted and winged seeds and fruits as they sail through the air. And, as we brush by the hedgerows and the borders of fields in search of various flowers and fruits, we soon become acquainted with a variety of bristled, hooked, and barbed fruits that are effectually dispersed by the agency of animals, quite a large number of these having securely fastened themselves to our clothing. Many fruits remain attached to their plants long after the last flowers, and even the leaves, have entirely disappeared. Some of these await the gales of late autumn and winter, and being now no longer sheltered from the wind, are carried to the spots where they are to produce new plants in the following spring; while sheep and other animals, wandering farther afield in search of food, carry away numerous hooked fruits in their woolly or hairy coats. The feathered fruits of the Wild Clematis adorn the hedgerows throughout the greater part of the cold season, and form a striking feature of the wayside until they have been dispersed by the winter storms; and the hips of the Wild Rose, as well as the berries and drupes of various shrubs, now rendered more conspicuous by their bright colouring and the absence of foliage, are devoured by birds which afterwards deposit the indigestible and, therefore, uninjured seeds, with their excrement, at some distant spot.