LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



that clothe their ovaries and scales ; thus the 

 attractive appearance of these catkins. 



Seeing that the minute flowers of the willow 

 catkins have no trace of a corolla, it may be 

 asked what reason there is for supposing that 

 they once had one. With most wind-fertihsed 

 flowers (and especially in that great wind-fertilised 

 family the grasses, of which I will say more in a 

 future chapter) there may be found traces of the 

 lost parts of the flowers. In the willows it 

 happens that such traces are very small, but in 

 their near relations the poplars there is a distinct 

 little cup around the base of the ten or twenty 

 stamens in each male flower, and also around the 

 ovary in each female flower. Even in the willows 

 themselves some species produce three stamens 

 and others five, and they vary in other details in 

 different species. Such facts all tend to show that 

 probably the flowers now bearing two stamens once 

 had more, like the poplars ; and it can scarcely be 

 termed ^' begging the question " to assume that 

 they might also originally have had a similar cup- 

 like perianth around their bases, but that it has 

 now disappeared. 



Assuming as correct the suggestion made above, 

 viz., that the bees visited the catkins in search of 

 pollen, and that nectar was provided to check 

 their thievery, another question then arises : How 

 came the flowers of the female catkins to produce 

 nectar ? The latter had no pollen to lose, and 

 certainly the bees would not trouble to visit them 

 simply to fertilise their stigmas. Now, the answer 



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