. MORE MARBIAGE CUSTOMS. 113 



arrangements of those plants which are fertilised 

 by insects or birds, and which belong to the 

 great group of flowering plants descended from 

 an early common ancestor with five petals. We 

 must next deal briefly with the marriage customs 

 of the insect-fertilised class among the other 

 great group whose ancestor started with but 

 three petals ; and after that we must go on to 

 the other mode of fertilisation by means of the 

 wind or of self -impregnation. 



This chapter has consisted so much of special 

 cases that I do not think it stands in the same 

 need of a summary as all its predecessors. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MOEE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 



Almost all the flowering plants with which most 

 people are familiar — all, indeed, save the pines 

 and other conifers — belong to one or other of 

 two great groups or alliances, each remotely 

 descended from a common ancestor. The 

 flowers we have hitherto been considering are 

 entirely those which belong to one out of these 

 two groups — the group which started with rows 

 of five, having five sepals, five petals, five or ten 

 stamens, and five or ten carpels. In several 

 cases, certain of these rows have been simplified 

 or reduced in number ; but almost always we 

 can see to the end some trace of the original 

 fivefold arrangement. This fivefold arrangement 

 is very conspicuous in all the stonecrops, and it 



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