CHAPTER IX 



TREES AND SHRUBS WITH BEAUTIFUL 

 CATKINS 



WHEN thinking of trees and shrubs in early spring 

 we must remember those with beautiful catkins. Of 

 the earliest flowering hardy trees and shrubs the 

 majority are those with flowers borne in catkins. 

 Their appearance is one of the first evidences of 

 the approach of spring. It is to the catkin-bearing 

 group that the Poplars, Willows, Birches, and Alders 

 belong. These catkins are pendulous, cylindrical, 

 and often slender inflorescences, carrying flowers 

 of one sex only, which spring from the axils of 

 scaly bracts. Being mainly dependent upon the 

 wind for their fertilisation, they have none of the 

 varied or bright colours that are characteristic of 

 flowers fertilised by insect agency. Often, indeed, 

 sepals and petals are entirely absent. Still, many of 

 these catkin-bearers possess a charm and beauty of 

 their own, which, taken with the early, often inclement, 

 season when they appear, make the best of them 

 indispensable in gardens where early spring effects 

 are desired. As a rule it is the male or pollen- 

 bearing catkins that are most ornamental. They 

 are longer and more graceful than the seed-bearing 

 ones. 



