Ill 



THE WOODS IN BLOOM. MARCH TO MAY 



4. MATERIAL : Winter twigs and flowering twigs of all the trees 

 to be studied. Review briefly what the class learned about the flowers 

 of willows and poplars last spring. 



1. Aspen flowers. 



When I told you some weeks ago that you should look 

 out for the flowers which would soon appear on the trees, 

 some of you thought that most trees had no flowers ; but this 

 morning Fred brought us a bundle of flowering twigs, which 

 he picked from a tree. Can you tell me on which tree they 

 grew ? You are right ; they grew on the aspen. As we have 

 studied many flowers, I think we can easily make out the 

 structure of these. Fred is ready to describe his catkins : 

 " My catkins are about an inch and a half or two inches 

 long ; from a distance they look gray, but this color is due 

 to many little scales which are divided into several lobes, 

 fringed with soft gray hairs. Among the scales I find a 

 large number of little scales, on each of which from six to 

 twelve stamens are inserted, and each of the stamens carries 

 an anther filled with pollen. When I shook the poplar tree, 

 the broken anthers discharged their pollen like a mass of 

 dust." Now let Annie tell us about her catkins : " My 

 catkins are also provided with hairy scales and little discs, 

 but on the discs I find small conical ovaries, of which each 

 carries two small styles." Fred found the two kinds of 

 catkins on different trees, and he asked me if both kinds 



Observations. Continue to observe the birds mentioned previously. 



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