354 FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 
treated with pollen from another flower of the same kind, 
or cross-pollinated.} 
424. Wind-Pollinated Flowers.2—_It has already been 
mentioned that some pollen is dry and powdery, and 
other kinds are more or less sticky. Pollen of the dusty 
sort is light, and therefore adapted to be blown about 
by the wind. Any one who has been much in corn- 
fields after the corn has “tasseled” has noticed the pale 
yellow dusty pollen which flies about when a cornstalk is 
jostled, and which collects in considerable quantities on 
the blades of the leaves. Corn is 
moncecious, but fertilization is best 
accomplished by pollen blown from 
- the “tassel”’ (stamens) of one plant 
Li aes pars ivae. being carried to the “silk” (pistils) 
Stigma, adapted for Wind- of another plant. This is well 
oie shown by the fact, familiar to every 
observing farmer’s boy, that solitary cornstalks, such as 
often grow very luxuriantly in an unused barnyard or 
similar locality, bear very imperfect ears or none at 
all. The common ragweed, another moncecious plant, 
is remarkable for the great quantities of pollen which 
shake off it on to. the shoes or clothes of the passer-by, 
and it is wind-pollinated. So, too, are the monecious 
pines, and these produce so much pollen that it has been 
mistaken for showers of sulphur, falling often at long dis- 
tances from the woods where it was produced. The pistil 
of wind-pollinated flowers is often feathery and thus 
adapted to catch flying pollen-grains (Fig. 248). Other - 
1 On dispersion of pollen see Kerner and Oliver, Vol. II, pp. 129-287. 
2 See Miss Newell’s Botany Reader, Part II, Chapter VII. 
