HOW PLANTS MAREY. 83 



this difficult paradox. I know it is difficult; 

 but, if only you will face it, it will throw floods 

 of light in due time on parts of our subject we 

 must consider hereafter. So let us look at it 

 close. A hive is a community. It consists for 

 the most part of workers, who are practically 

 neither male nor female. They are neuters, as 

 we say ; and their main work is to find food for 

 the whole hive, 

 including them- 

 selves and the 

 grubs or larvae 

 which are the 

 young of the 

 species. But, in 

 addition to these 

 workers, the hive 

 has a queen, who 

 IS the only per- ^j^^ ^^ — ^ flower, with its petals 

 feet female, or bemoved. Outside are five stamens, 

 mother, and who which produce pollen : in the centre 

 lavs the eggs ^^ *^® pistil, which contains the 

 from which the """^'^ °' y°"°S '''^'- 

 larv8B are produced; and it has also several 

 drones, who are the males of the community, and 

 fathers of the larvae. Thus we have a colony or 

 city, as it were, consisting of a few males, a 

 single female, and a whole body of worker or 

 feeder neuters. 



Now, a higher plant, like a cherry-tree (to 

 take a particular example), is just such a colony 

 or joint community. The leaves, each of which 

 is a distinct and almost self-supporting indi- 

 vidual, are its workers and feeders. Like the 



