If we were lost in the woods, and obliged to live upon the plants about us, I dare say we should eat, and perhaps enjoy eating, many things which now seem quite impossible; but until this happens I advise you not to experiment with strange leaves and roots and berries. Every little while one reads of the death of some child as the result of eating a poisonous plant. [Illustration: FIG. 38] The next picture (Fig. 38) shows you the fruit of Solomon’s seal. These dark-blue berries hang from beneath the leafy stem, just as the little flowers hung their yellow heads last May. Next come the speckled red berries of the false Solomon’s seal (Fig. 39), a big cousin of the smaller plant. As you see, this bears its fruit quite differently, all in a cluster at the upper part of the stem. These two plants seem to be great chums, constantly growing side by side. We have been so busy and so happy that the morning has flown, and now we must be finding our way home to dinner; for, unlike the birds, we are not satisfied to dine on berries alone. [Illustration: FIG. 39] At almost every step we long to stop and look at some new plant in fruit; for, now that we have learned how to look for them, berries of different sorts seem thick on every side. Low at our feet are the red ones of the wintergreen (Fig. 40). On taller plants grow the odd white ones, with blackish spots, of the white baneberry (Fig. 41), or the red ones of the red baneberry. [Illustration: FIG. 40] [Illustration: FIG. 41] Still higher glisten the dark, glass-like clusters of the spikenard. Along the lane are glowing barberries (Fig. 42) and thorns bright with their “haws” (for the fruit of the thorn is called a “haw”). These look something like little apples. Here, too, is the black alder, studded with its red, waxy beads. But we must hurry on, not stopping by the way. And you can be sure that those birds we hear chirruping above us are glad enough to be left to finish their dinner in peace. [Illustration: FIG. 42] [Illustration: Berries] WHY SEEDS TRAVEL At last I think we all understand that by the red of the apple, the purple of the plum, and the different colors worn by the berries we find in the woods, these plants are inviting us, and the birds also, to eat their fruit, and so release from prison their little seeds. But what would happen, do you suppose, if no one should accept this invitation? What would become of their seeds if these pears and apples and berries were not eaten by boys and girls and birds? Most of this question you can answer for yourselves. If you leave the apple on the tree, after a time it falls off upon the ground; and unless picked up, there it lies till it decays. In the orchard every fall you see apples decaying on the ground. In a little while the fleshy part disappears, and the little seeds are thus let out of prison without help. But many plants are not satisfied to leave their seeds so near home. Why is this, do you suppose?