CATKIN TIME 53 



trees putting forth catkins now do so with their 

 whole strength. 



Wind flowers upon trees must be produced 

 before the leaves have started to open. Multitu- 

 dinous as the pollen is, it must be set free in a world 

 that is not everywhere clogged with foliage to 

 catch it and put a fruitless end to its voyage. 

 How multitudinous it is, who can say ? Figures 

 would be of no avail. Possibly it is greater in the 

 evergreens than in deciduous trees, as though these 

 trees knew how much greater is the danger of pollen 

 going astray among leafed branches. The yews 

 are now studded with innumerable little yellow 

 balls like the flower of mimosa. I touch a branch 

 of it and the powder flies off like smoke, as thin and 

 as volatile, melting into the air like the steam of 

 a locomotive, though, unlike the water particles of 

 steam, each atom invisible in its smallness is an 

 atom of life expressly aimed at the fertilization 

 of a seed of its own kind. How futile to attempt 

 to -calculate the number of pollen grains on this 

 one yew tree among the millions that stud our 

 chalk hills ! 



In districts where many pines are grown, not 

 merely the stigmas and the twigs, and the trunks 

 of the pines, but every tree within miles, the grass, 

 the rocks, and the whole earth, are covered with a 

 layer of pollen that paints them all yellow. When 

 the rain comes, the streams are yellow, and where 

 the flood has been out it leaves a deeper stain on 

 the ground from the swollen grains that makes 



