74 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



devote all their energies to the production of 

 pollen, and sometimes they have only a pistil or 

 pistils, and attempt nothing else except the per- 

 fecting of their own seed. 



The perfect blossoms which bear both stamens 

 and pistils may live in a household of staminate 

 brother-flowers, or in a household of pistillate 

 sister-flowers, or all three sorts of blossoms may 

 grow together on one tree. 



The red maple and the elm among early-flower- 

 ing trees, and the holly, prickly-ash, and hackberry 

 among the later trees, are thus unsystematic in 

 their mode of conducting their affairs. 



Their seedlings are born by the crossing of two 

 flowers, or by the crossing of two trees, as cir- 

 cumstances may determine. 



The seedling born of two flowers has a double 

 advantage over the one which springs from a seed 

 set by aid of pollen from the flower in which it 

 grew. The offspring of two flower-parents is the 

 stronger, and also the readier to accommodate 

 itself to change in its circumstances and surround- 

 ings. It is therefore likely to live to maturity, 

 and to bear many flowers, which will take after 

 their " forbears" in a decided inclination to pro- 

 duce pollen in one blossom and seeds in another. 



