207 
tassels. Each flower in these tassels is made up of a 
single pistil, which is also fastened to a little fringed 
leaf (Fig. 198). 
So you see the building plan used by one kind of 
pussy-willow flowers is nothing but two stamens; 
while the plan used by the other kind is still 
simpler, it is nothing but one pistil. 
The golden dust is carried by the bees from 
the willows which bear dust boxes to those other 
willows whose flowers have only seedboxes. 
When they have given to the bees their pollen, 
_ the yellow tassels fade away; but the silvery 
green tassels, on account of their seedboxes, grow FIG. 198 
large and ripe, turning into the fruit shown in Fig. 
62, p. 61; and this fruit is one of the kind which 
scatters its seeds abroad by fastening them to silky 
sails. 
ALDERS AND BIRCHES 
HERE is another shrub or low tree growing along 
the brook’s edge which flowers almost as early as 
the willows. 
This is the alder. 
Perhaps you noticed last fall that these alders were 
hung with a quantity of little green tassels. These 
tassels did not fall off with the leaves in November. 
Through the long winter they clung to the shrub 
Sometimes they wore little coats of ice which made- 
