M THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



the miserable riff-raff and outcasts of plant-life 

 still adhere to the old and bad method of fertili- 

 sation by means of the pollen of their own 

 flowers. 



We are now in a position to understand the 

 main principles which govern the marriage cus- 

 toms of plants ; we will proceed in the next 

 chapter to consider in detail how these prin- 

 ciples work out in particular instances. But 

 first we must sum up what we have learnt in 

 this chapter. 



Plants marry and are given in marriage. The 

 very lowest plants, indeed, are sexless, but in 

 the higher there are well-marked distinctions of 

 male and female. An intermediate stage exists 

 in certain thread-like pond-weeds, where mar- 

 riage or intermixture takes place between two 

 adjacent cells, neither of which is male or female. 

 The higher plants, however, are really com- 

 munities or colonies, of which the leaves are 

 the workers, and the various parts of the flower 

 the males and females. The central part of the 

 flower, known as the pistil, is the female indi- 

 vidual ; it produces ovules, or young seeds, 

 which, however, cannot grow and swell without 

 the quickening aid of pollen. The next row in 

 the flower, known as the stamens, contains the 

 male individuals ; they produce pollen, which 

 lights on the sensitive surface of the pistil, sendd 

 out tubes of very active living matter, and 

 quickens or impregnates the ovules in the pistil. 

 Besides these necessary organs flow^ers have 

 often two other sets of parts. The corolla, 



