54 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



feathery prongs. But almost every cluster contains 

 some flowers which have no pistils at all only 

 stamens. These have no use for their pollen at 

 home, and will send it all out into the world. 

 Sir John Lubbock says it flies on the wings of 

 the wind. Another excellent authority reckons the 

 elm-blossom among honey-bearing flowers, and says 

 its pollen travels on the bodies of early-roving 

 flies and bees. 



Probably both authorities are right, and the 

 habits of the trees are even now undergoing a 

 change. It may be that the elms, which are 

 gradually learning to bear stamens and pistils in 

 separate flowers, are also, by slow degrees, dis- 

 pensing with the services of that wasteful pollen- 

 carrier, the wind, and learning to utilize those safer 

 and surer messengers, flying insects. In some 

 future day they may reach the condition of the 

 red maples, which are almost wholly dependent 

 upon insect ministrations. 



All the earliest tree-blossoms, poplar, swamp- 

 willow, elm, and red maple, come out of buds 

 which contain flowers only. On the trees which 

 bear them are other buds from which the foliage 

 expands later. But some buds contain both foliage 

 and flowers. The great horse-chestnut buds, those 



