The Flowering of the Forest Trees 75 



The seedling born of two plant-parents is even 

 stronger and more adaptable than the one born of 

 two flower-parents, and in the struggle for exist- 

 ence it is the likeliest of the three to survive. 

 And its plant-children will follow the parental habit 

 of setting seed by aid of pollen brought from 

 another plant. So age by age the "dioecious" 

 flowers have been separating their stamens and 

 pistils more and more widely, and if the world 

 lasts long enough the elms and red maples may 

 reach the condition of the willows and poplars, 

 with all the stamens borne on one tree, and all 

 the pistils on another. 



In Nature's school, elms and red maples seem 

 to occupy an intermediate class with the walnuts 

 and hickories below them, and the willows and 

 poplars above. 



The white-ash trees, which blossom in latter 

 March or early April, are somewhat unsettled in 

 their habits. Like the elms, they use both breezes 

 and insects as pollen-carriers, and they have gen- 

 erally, but not entirely, adopted that plan of bear- 

 ing stamens and pistils in separate flowers, which 

 has become a fixed rule among the poplars. 



The staminate flower-buds of the ash are very 

 noticeable in earliest spring, when they are inky- 



