66 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



Many sorts are what botanists call '* naked," 

 having neither calyx nor corolla. 



Many sorts are also what botanists call " im- 

 perfect," that is, having either stamens and no 

 pistils, or else pistils and no stamens. 



One flower may be a pistil or cluster of pistils, 

 surrounded by a few scales, and its "affinity" is 

 a bunch of stamens and a scale or two; and these 

 two incomplete blossoms may grow, not only on 

 separate branches, but in separate trees. 



As these forest-tree flowers have, generally speak- 

 ing, neither bright colors, nor honey, nor fragrance, 

 we surmise that their messenger is the wind, 

 which blows when and where it lists, and is not 

 to be coaxed by the methods which "take" with 

 insects. 



And because the wind is their go-between, these 

 blossoms appear, sometimes before the leaves issue 

 from the buds, and almost always before they 

 expand, for foliage would be seriously in the way 

 of pollen as it flew from bough to bough or from 

 tree to tree. The stamens are borne in long, 

 drooping dangles or " catkins," which sway with 

 the lightest breath, so that the pollen is shaken 

 out even by the faintest zephyrs of a spring day. 



The pollen of most forest-trees is light and dry, 



