211 
In some of our city streets grows the poplar. Its 
flowers are crowded into long green tassels. Many 
of these fall to the pavement below, and lie there, 
looking like great caterpillars. These tassels are 
those which bear the flowers with stamens. Now, 
if we were in the woods, we should be pretty sure 
to find near by another poplar whose tassels 
do not fall so quickly. This is because these are 
made up of flowers with pistils. They cling to 
Fic. 206 
the tree not only till they have been powdered 
with pollen from the neighboring poplar, but till their 
_ tiny seeds have had time to ripen and are ready to start 
out on their life journey. 
——-0 59, 00 —— 
THE UNSEEN VISITOR 
PROMISED to tell you why so many of the trees 
flower before they leaf. 
Many of these tree blossoms are neither bright 
enough to attract the attention of the bees and butterflies, 
nor so fragrant as to tempt the passing insects to visit 
them; for when the flower handkerchiefs are not large 
and bright enough to signal the bees, the blossom often 
gives notice of its presence by a strong perfume. How, 
then, is the pollen from one flower to reach the pistil of 
another? And especially how can this be arranged 
when the flowers with pollen may live quite a way off — 
on another tree, in fact —from the flowers with pistils ? 
”) 
“Perhaps the birds carry it,” suggests some child. 
