10 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



into the camp of the utilitarians. But the philosophy of life 

 has many sides and the recent discoveries in Mendelian in- 

 heritance, mutation and orthogenesis have revealed some of 

 its complexity. — John H. Schaifner in Ohio Naturalist. 



PUSSY WILLOWS. 



By Dr. W. W. Bailey. 



NATURE is especially fond of tassels: with them she 

 fringes the curtains of the opening year ; with them she 

 adorns many of her noblest trees. In late May we see the 

 sturdy oaks decked out with pendant catkins ; in July the mag- 

 nificent chestnut bursts forth into jets and fountains of bloom. 

 Birches, hazels, ironwoods, sweet fern and bay berry all have 

 tassels. Even in winter we see this favorite inflorence in alders 

 and willows not, to be sure, in open flower but in pendants that 

 indicate the tasseled type. 



The amentaceous trees usually have the two kinds of 

 flowers separated, either on difierent parts of the same tree or 

 shrub, as in alder, or on perfectly distinct plants as with wil- 

 lows. In other words willows are distinctly male and female, 

 as commonly understood. Of course modern botany has made 

 discoveries, too recondite to enter upon here, which would 

 qualify these terms. Still they remain convenient adjectives 

 and are likely to long endure. 



When in bloom one learns to know the two kinds of cat- 

 kin, male or female, apart, and sometimes even at a long dis- 

 tance. The female willow bears more greenish tassels. Close 

 examination shows, too, the flask-like ovaries, standing in the 

 axils of silk-covered scales. These compose the cluster. If, 

 now, we look at the male flowers, on another plant, we find 

 each flower to consist of two divergent stamens, subtended by 

 a silky scale as in the former case. Neither kind has either 

 calyx or corolla but both develop abundant nectar, to which 

 bees, big and little, come from afar. 



