ROUND THE YEAR 



turned surface of the scale is bare ; in a ripe catkin it is 

 dusted with abundance of pollen shed from the flowers 

 above ; from the side which hangs down the flowers 

 spring. It is plain that they are well sheltered from 

 the rain by the over-arching scale. 



There are three flowers to every scale. Each is 

 enclosed in a calyx of four sepals, and opposite each 

 sepal is a stamen. In the tmexpanded catkin the 

 stamen completely fills the space within the hollow 

 sepal, but as the flowers ripen the stamen becomes 



free, each of its two large 

 anther-lobes bursts, and the 

 yellow pollen is shed. 



Now let us take one of 

 the female cones and ex- 

 amine it closely. The scales 

 can be parted with needles, 

 and examined with a lens. 

 Each scale is hollowed out, 

 well rounded sides, and 

 pointed tip. Close to its 

 base two ovaries can be seen, 

 each bearing two styles. 

 The ends of the styles can 

 often be seen protruding be- 

 tween the scales ; at the tip of 

 each is the stigma which has 

 to catch the grains of pollen. 



Two styles indicate two carpels, and microscopic ex- 

 amination shows that there really are two carpels to 

 each flower. The ovary is at first two-celled, and 

 contains two seeds. But only one of these seeds will 



FIG. 20. Two cones of Alder in 

 flower. Magnified. 



