AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 13 
if you examine the structure of those tassels 
of bloom, you will see that they consist of a 
number of delicate scales one above another, 
within which are the stamens; those are the 
male flowers. Every catkin is laden with 
Pollen-dust, which falls or floats about when 
the tree is shaken, and fructifies the female 
buds. Within those buds are several flowers, 
each of which may produce a nut. The crim- 
son tuft is composed of the stigmas which rise 
out of the germen, which will become the 
actual nut. 
You will notice here, that instead of finding 
the stamens and pistil in the same flower, as 
in many other cases, the stamen-bearing or 
‘male flowers are separated from the pistil- 
bearing or female ones, though both kinds of 
flowers are on the same tree. A plant which 
bears its flowers thus is called a MJonecious 
plant; and you thus learn the characteristic 
of one of the 24 classes of the Linnzan 
system of Botany. Several of our large trees 
are of this class; the common Beech, Fagus 
Sylvatica, the Hornbeam, Carpfznus Betulus, 
which when clipped forms excellent fences ; 
the several kinds of Oak, Quercus, and the 
