MORE MAREIAGE CUSTOMS. 115 



favoured such an arrangement in a considerable 

 number of the iiigher plants. In such cases 

 some of the flowers consist of stamens only, 

 with no carpels ; while others consist of carpels 

 alone, with no stamens. But as all are de- 

 scended from ancestors which had both organs 

 combined in the same flower, remnants of the 

 stamens often exist in the female flowers as 

 naked filaments or barren threads, while 

 remnants of the carpels equally exist in the 

 male flowers as central knobs without seeds or 

 ovules. 



The beautiful begonias, so much cultivated in 

 conservatories, give us an excellent example of 

 such single-sex flowers. In these plants the 

 males and females are extremely different. The 

 male flower has four coloured and petal-like 

 sepals, surrounding a number of central stamens. 

 The female flower has five coloured and petal-like 

 sepals, surrounding a group of daintily-twisted 

 central stigmas, while at the base of the blossom 

 is a large triangular ovary, containing the young 

 seeds or ovules. Usually the flowers grow in 

 little bunches of three, each bunch consisting of 

 two males and one female. 



In the pumpkins, cucumbers, and melons, 

 separate male and female flowers also exist on 

 the same plant. The females here may be easily 

 recognised by having an ovary or small unde- 

 veloped fruit at the back of the blossom, which 

 you can cut across so as to show the young 

 seeds or ovules within it. As the proper insects 

 for fertilising cucumbers and melons do not live 

 in England, gardeners usually impregnate the 



