THE MARRIAGE OF PLANTS 171 
quantities of water to supply the millions of leaves 
above. 
Plants have not always had the same manner 
of eating, drinking, and sleeping; nor have they al- 
ways had the same marriage customs as now. Just 
as the customs of mankind change with the passing 
of ages, some becoming more civilised and some 
less, so do plant customs change, some for a better 
civilisation and some, like the dodder and the Indian 
pipe, actually becoming degenerated. 
Before the marriage takes place in the plant 
world there is a brief but no less real courtship! 
The happy and gallant wooer adorns himself gor- 
geously with brilliant flowers each having powdered 
faces calling to his love on every breeze. He must 
be very beautiful and charming, or she will not 
respond to his love by rustling her silken and per- 
fumed leaves! 
This, of course, refers to marriages among the 
larger and more developed plants. In most of 
these marriages many happy children are born in 
the form of seeds; and these children are well sup- 
plied by the fond mother with food and clothing 
before they are sent out into the big world. 
Among the lower, or less developed, plants, the 
marriage customs are very simple and crude. In 
some of the water plants, like certain forms of 
