THE MARRIAGE OF PLANTS _ 173 
oured petals are really used as advertisements. The 
reds, yellows, oranges, greens, purples, and whites, 
are flags that signal to the bees and butterflies to 
come and feast on the honey—and thus to fill their 
fuzzy backs with the pollen grains which will read- 
ily cling to the sticky pistil of the next flower they 
visit. 
One of the most brilliant displays of colour is that 
of the flame azalea. It flaunts its gaudy blossoms 
over the mountain-sides, beckoning to the pollen- 
bearers to come and taste of its honey. Its flame- 
coloured flowers are produced in great profusion, 
and, massed together, their blazing splendour gives 
the impression of the woods on fire. The azalea, 
because of its gay blossoms, is becoming very popu- 
lar as a cultivated shrub. 
Some plants do not care to have their pollen dis- 
tributed, but fertilise their own flowers by dropping 
the pollen grains upon their own pistils. But in 
all such cases their children are degenerates, and 
only plants which are very low and unsuccessful in 
life use this means of fertilisation. While in a 
very large percentage of flowering plants, the male 
and female elements both are present in the same 
flower, if good healthy offspring are to be produced 
it is necessary for pollen to be brought from an- 
other plant, or another flower of the same plant. 
