360 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



ment, till they became the whitish, papery little 

 affairs we see to-day. 



Each plantain blossom has both stamens and pis- 

 tils, but the pistils mature first. In the commonest 

 varieties they project between the folded petals 

 while the little flowers are still in bud, and are fer- 

 tilized by pollen blown to them from some neigh- 

 boring spike. Their feathery tips are wonderfully 

 fitted to catch and hold any stray grains which 

 happen to come their way. After the little plumes 

 of the pistil have withered away, the stamens ripen 

 and dangle out on cobwebby filaments, so as to 

 scatter all their pollen to the four winds. 



Let us notice that the lower flowerets of the 

 spike are the first to open ; and so if we pick a 

 half-blown spike we find that all the pistils are ripe 

 above while the stamens are ripe below. If the 

 upper flowerets opened first the pollen would fall 

 from their stamens to the lower flowerets of the 

 same spike; but as the pistils below have always 

 been fertilized before the stamens are ripe above, 

 there is no chance of such an accident, and the 

 seeds of each spike are set by aid of pollen brought 

 from another. 



So the plantain is wholly adapted to wind fer- 

 tilization and has lost the bright color which once 



