8o Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



bearing flowers there, and when she visits another 

 spire of bloom this will be carried to its lowest 

 blossoms, which are pistillate. 



Besides the perfectly developed pistil these lower 

 flowers bear a number of stamens which, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Ogle, never open, and never shed 

 their stores of pollen. And the upper flowers, 

 which nowadays do nothing except produce pol- 

 len and make a brave show, hold in their hearts 

 little green rudiments which are significant signs 

 of abandoned habits. 



For each of these is a pistil almost dwindled to 

 nothingness a reminiscence of the time when the 

 horse-chestnut flowers had not yet learned co- 

 operation. 



The long stamens of these topmost flowers have 

 an upward curve which brings their anthers against 

 the hairy hinder parts of their favorite visitor, 

 the bumble-bee. And when "the insect flies to 

 the lower florets of the next spire, the long, curv- 

 ing pistils touch the same spot on her body and 

 receive the pollen they need. 



When the upper flowers of the spire have given 

 away all their pollen they fall and strew the ground 

 beneath the trees. The horse-chestnuts are cousins 

 to the maples, and are not even distantly related 



