The Flowering of the Forest Trees 79 



ticed to the boughs by them, and bearing their 

 powdered gold on her body, she will visit some 

 sister-flower, which is in botanical language " per- 

 fect," and from which will develop, later, the 

 horse-chestnut bur. 



On the blooming spire there are scores of flow- 

 ers, but if we look at the branch again, in later 

 summer, we will see that only six or eight of 

 them have set their seed. The rest have per- 

 ished, as the worker-ants do, leaving no descend- 

 ants; the only memento of their lives will be the 

 work done for the community into which they 

 were born. 



The perfect blossoms of the horse-chestnut grow 

 near the base of the spire of bloom. Their friend, 

 the bee, works from the ground upward, and all 

 the bee-flowers, which grow in spikes or bunches, 

 have adapted themselves to this habit of their 

 favorite messenger. 



When she comes to a branch of horse-chestnut 

 blossoms she is probably already dusted with pol- 

 len from another cluster. With this she flies to 

 the lowest flowers of the spire, which are pistil- 

 bearing, and therefore want pollen and have a use 

 for it. Then, rising into the top of the spire, she 

 takes on a fresh load of pollen from the stamen- 



