HOW PLANTS MARRY. 73 



food-stuffs. Many plants die down almost en- 

 tirely, above ground, in winter, and keep their 

 raw material in underground reservoirs, most of 

 which are stem-like rather than root-like. Ani- 

 mals, however, find out these subterranean re- 

 serves, and prey upon them ; hence the plants 

 often secure their hoard by nauseous tastes or 

 other protective devices. 



CHAPTER VI. 



HOW PLANTS MARRY. 



We next come to what is perhaps the most 

 fascinating chapter of all in the life-history of 

 plants— the chapter which tells us how they marry 

 and are given in marriage. 



In order that you may fully understand this 

 curious and delightful subject, however, I shall 

 have to begin by telling you a few preliminary 

 points less interesting in themselves, and, I fear, 

 at times not a little troublesome. 



Flowers are the husbands and wives of plants. 

 And in some plants the sexes are as fully sepa- 

 rated as in birds or beasts ; when once you know 

 them, you can distinguish at sight a male from a 

 female flower as readily as you can distinguish a 

 bull from a cow, or a peacock from a peahen (Fig. 

 13). But in other cases the sexes are muddled up 

 in the same blossom or on the same plant in a 

 way that makes it rather difficult to understand 

 their true nature without a little pains and some 

 close attention. 



So we must go back a bit for light to the lower 

 plants. Here we find no flowers at all, and in 



