52 THE RING OF NATURE 



grow vocal and pugnacious while their prudent 

 hens still think it too early to think of nesting ; 

 the male bee hardens in a week of March wind 

 before the future mothers appear. In no depart- 

 ment must the ladies be kept waiting. 



The crimson slashings on the cones or female 

 catkins are the peepings of the stigmas. Unlike 

 the male element, these can be to a certain extent 

 covered again after being uncovered, and thus 

 saved from sudden inclemency of the weather. 

 They do not become receptive till the males have 

 discharged their pollen by millions and trillions of 

 grains, and the atmosphere is one vast bath of 

 impregnation. Then the alder trees suddenly 

 turn from yellow to rose-colour, the lengthened 

 female catkins exposing all their crimson, but 

 diluting their brilliance w r ith the sober scales that 

 covered them in the bud. All along the river then 

 are trees of one colour, and the other, yellow next 

 to rose, yellow perceptibly turning to rose, and 

 finally the pale peep of green. 



The lambs' tails of the nut bushes have been 

 flying all the winter. Over and over again the 

 tragedy of the fatally disappointed male has been 

 played. The frosts have nipped off several armies 

 of them, the rains have soddened the pollen so 

 that it could not fly, and the wise little stigmas 

 kept themselves close in bud. The nut bush does 

 not produce all its catkins at once, but sends scout 

 armies forward at each slightest hint of spring. 

 It will be found, though, that the alder and the other 



