106 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



CHAPTER VI. 



SOME SPECIALIZING FLOWERS. 



A number of our plants seem to have discarded 

 the idea of one blossom doing all the work of seed- 

 making. They have advanced to the stage of spe- 

 cialization and have their stamens in one flower 

 and their pistils in another. Most of our trees do 

 this. Sometimes the stamens and the pistils are on 

 the same individual plant, as in the Pine, and they 

 are termed "monoecious," from the Greek, "of one 

 household." Sometimes the staminate blossoms are 

 on one plant, and the pistillate on another, as in the 

 Willow, and these are called "dioecious," or "in 

 two households." 



A lovely example of the dioecious is the Garrya 

 elliptica, commonly called the Silk-Tassel Tree. 

 The common name describes the flower chains. Lit- 

 tle bracts, silk-covered, form cups in which are 

 grouped several flowers. There are no corollas on 

 either staminate or pistillate form, but both have 

 calyxes. There are four stamens in each little 

 flower, and because the pollen must get to another 

 tree to reach the waiting stigmas, a great quantity 



