THE MARRIAGE OF PLANTS 173 



oured petals are really used as advertisements. The 

 reds, yellows, oranges, greens, purples, and whites, 

 are flags that signal to the bees and butterflies to 

 come and feast on the honey and thus to fill their 

 fuzzy backs with the pollen grains which will read- 

 ily cling to the sticky pistil of the next flower they 

 visit. 



One of the most brilliant displays of colour is that 

 of the flame azalea. It flaunts its gaudy blossoms 

 over the mountain-sides, beckoning to the pollen- 

 bearers to come and taste of its honey. Its flame- 

 coloured flowers are produced in great profusion, 

 and, massed together, their blazing splendour gives 

 the impression of the woods on fire. The azalea, 

 because of its gay blossoms, is becoming very popu- 

 lar as a cultivated shrub. 



Some plants do not care to have their pollen dis- 

 tributed, but fertilise their own flowers by dropping 

 the pollen grains upon their own pistils. But in 

 all such cases their children are degenerates, and 

 only plants which are very low and unsuccessful in 

 life use this means of fertilisation. While in a 

 very large percentage of flowering plants, the male 

 and female elements both are present in the same 

 flower, if good healthy offspring are to be produced 

 it is necessary for pollen to be brought from an- 

 other plant, or another flower of the same plant. 



