84 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



worker bees, too, the leaves are neuters — 

 neither true males nor true females. They feed 

 and lay by, and from them new leaves are 

 continually produced in the buds and at the 

 ends of branches. This is called the sexlesd 

 method of reproduction, and it is essentially 

 similar to the way in which the single-celled 

 plant or the simple animal divides itself sexlessly 

 into two or more little plantlets or animals. 

 But, in addition to this sexless way, the plant 

 also at certain times produces other sorts of 

 leaves which are sexual individuals, and these 

 we call, in the lump, flowers. But flowers are 

 not all alike throughout. They consist of certain 

 male individuals, the stamens, which answer to 

 the drones, and of certain female individuals, the 

 pistils or carpels, which answer to the queen or 

 mother bee, and produce the ovules or little eggs 

 of the family. A cherry-tree is thus a plant- 

 hive or colony, consisting for the most part of 

 workers or leaves, but also at certain times of 

 year producing male and female members, whose 

 business it is to found fresh swarms, as it were 

 — to produce the seeds which are the basis and 

 foundation of new colonies. 



There is of course one great difference between 

 a hive and a plant, and that is that in the hive 

 the individuals are separate and distinct, while 

 in the plant they are combined on a single stem, 

 which serves to join them. In this respect 

 plants are more like a branch of coral, which 

 consists of a number of distinct animals or 

 polypes, united by a core of stony material, and 

 a living mass of connecting matter. Yet the 



