The Flowering of the Forest Trees 69 



so that spring breezes can easily detach it from 

 the stamens and carry it fast and far. 



And their stigmas are more or less branched and 

 hairy, so that they can readily catch the pollen as 

 it flies by. 



By time the tender leaves are large enough to 

 cast their shadows on the ground, the pollen 

 messages of the trees have been delivered by the 

 wind, and the precious seed is set (Fig. 9). 



The walnut, butternut, hickory, oak, beech, hazel- 

 nut, and ironwood trees are all what botanists call 

 " monoecious." That is to say, their stamens and 

 pistils are borne on the same tree, though not in 

 the same blossom. The stamens of all these trees 

 grow in little, close clusters, which are dotted, like 

 rosary beads, all down the length of a slender, 

 pendulous cord. Each stamen cluster is partly 

 covered by a scale or hood, which in a measure 

 prevents the pollen from being washed away by 

 spring rains. 



On the walnut, two or three of these stamen- 

 chains come out of one bud; on the oak, six or 

 seven issue from a single ring of bud-scales (Fig. 

 10). Indeed, as a rule these dangles, which are 

 each and every one a whole community of asso- 

 ciated stamens, grow in family groups, so that the 



