CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



and throngs of bees comedo this feast the willow provides. 

 Often the humming of the bees helps one to find the tree. 

 You can watch the bees as closely as you like; they are too 

 busy to mind you in the least, for they are really doing two 

 things- at once; they are circling round and round the cat- 

 kins sucking up the honey, and at the same time they are 

 brushing off the pollen that clings to their bodies, and 

 packing it away in the pollen baskets on their legs. 

 The bees will have many babies to feed, and the pollen is 

 just what they need to store for them. 



But you find willow trees with catkins that are not 

 yellow. Instead of stamens, a single pistil has pushed out 

 from beneath each scale. Bach pistil has a little box for 

 seed, the ovary, and two, tiny, moist stigmas to catch the 

 pollen. Bach of these flowers, too, has its drop of honey 

 for the bees. 



Now let us think out how the willows are rewarded 

 for all this hospitality. The trees that have pistils are 

 the seed-makers, but they must have pollen in order to 

 make good seed, and the pollen is found on other trees. 

 Perhaps the wind carries some pollen for the willows, but 

 the wind is a wasteful servant, and the willows prefer to 

 pay the bees to do their work. And this is how the bees 

 help the willows. On the catkins that bear stamens the 

 bees fill their baskets with pollen for their own use, but 

 they also carry away very many grains that cling to their 

 bodies. When they fly to other trees to get the honey 

 among the pistils, the precious dust is rubbed off on the 

 rough, moist stigmas, where each little grain can grow and 

 help to make a seed. 



And so it happens that on the seed-making trees 

 every catkin has its many pistils well supplied with seeds. 

 You have seen these seeds bursting from their tiny pods 

 and floating about on their white wings. You can see how 

 light they are and can imagine how the winds will carry 



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