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 



