54 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



anthers is flying about, part of this dust lights upon, and is seen 

 to cling to the stigma. 



2. Proportion. For the most part the stamens and pistils 

 are of the same height, that the male dust may more easily come 

 at the stigma ; but in some plants it is not so, and then a singular 

 process of fecundation may be observed. As for example, some 

 of the pinks have pistils longer than, the stamens : the flowers do 

 not nod, but the pistils are reflected or bent back like rams' 

 horns towards the anthers. 



3. Place. The stamens for the most part surround the 

 pistil, so that some of the dust is always blown by the wind on 

 the stigma. 



4. Time. Here we are to observe, that the stamens and 

 pistils come at the same time, and that not only in one and the 

 same flower, but also where some are male and others female, on 

 the same plant, with a very few exceptions. One thing which 

 merits our observation in regard to time is, that when the male 

 and female flowers are in distinct cups on the same plant, or on 

 different plants of the same species, and where the male flowers 

 are not erected perpendicularly over the females, there it is 

 necessary that the flowering be over before the leaves come out, 

 lest the fecundation should be hindered by the intervention of 

 the leaves, as for example, in the mulberry, alder, birch, hornbeam, 

 beech, oak hazel, and also in the willow, poplar and ash. 



5. Rains. In almost all sorts of flowers we see how they 



expand or open by the heat of the sun ; but in the evening, and 



in a moist state of the air, they close or contract, lest the moisture 



getting to the dust of the anthers should coagulate the same, and 



render it incapable of being blown on the stigmas ; but when 



once the fecundation is over, the flowers neither contract in the 



evening, nor yet against rain. Flowers with covered anthers 



never close in the night. The anthers of the rye hang out beyond 



the flower, and if rain falls while it is in flower, the dust is 



clotted ; hence the husbandman truly predicts a bad crop ; for 



the grains are not so numerous, because many of the florets prove 



abortive. But the anthers of the barley lie so close within the 



husk, that the rain cannot get in. If rain falls upon the blossom 



