THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 35 



pollen. The pussy-willow whose silvery catkins now abound 

 along streams and the borders of swamps has found another 

 way of securing the transferrence of its pollen. It has called 

 the bees to its aid. The two kinds of flowers are on different 

 shrubs, often long distances apart, but by providing a reward 

 of honey, the bees are induced to go from one blossom to 

 another, transferring as they go, though quite unintentionally 

 the pollen which clings to their bodies. Since the willows are 

 pollinated by insects, they do not need to produce as much 

 pollen as the hazel and alder, but they must secrete honey 

 and thus loose in one direction what they gain in another. 

 Wind-pollinated flowers commonly do not produce honey, 

 for the wind asks no pay for his services. 



Among honey-producing trees, must be included the red 

 and white maples, now beginning to bloom along suburban 

 streets. These produce both sugar and honey, but commonly 

 not at the same time. When the tree begins honey making, 

 the sugar maker knows it is time for him to stop, else his 

 product will have a bitter flavor and "taste of the bud," as 

 he phrases it. It is probable that most of those who have 

 spent their lives in the country, walking under the blooming 

 maples each spring, have no idea what beauties are swinging 

 from the boughts overhead. Yet from each bud, springs 

 several tiny bell-shaped flowers as marvellously fashioned as 

 any that bloom in softer airs. 



One thing noticeable about nearly all the early blossoms 

 is that they are formed during the preceding autumn. In 

 blooming before the leaves put forth they reverse the usual 

 order of things. Indeed, the witch-hazel which properly be- 

 longs to this class, goes a step further, and, having formed its 

 flower buds in autumn, blooms then, too, amid the falling 

 leaves and is now ripening its seeds in the damp thickets. 

 The true summer flowers do not appear until the plants have 

 got their leaves, and the scientists have advanced several the- 



