THE WOODS IN BLOOM 139 



2. The flowers of the Soft or Silver Maple. 



The boys found some more tree flowers yesterday. Do 

 you know from Avhat tree these twigs came ? As you have 

 all recognized them as twigs of the soft maple, let us see if 

 the flowers differ much from poplar flowers. 



Susan finds at once two kinds of flowers ; both kinds grow 

 in clusters from lateral buds, and they are all attached to 

 thin filaments ; but one kind contains a bunch of dark red 

 anthers carried on short stamens, while the other kind has 

 two small wings in each flower. The two wings are styles, 

 and are attached to the ovaries in which the seeds will grow 

 later. We look in vain for a bright-colored corolla in maple 

 flowers, but you can easily find the greenish-yellow calyx 

 below the stamens and also below the ovaries. You re- 

 member that we always found the staminate and pistillate 

 flowers of poplars on different trees. On maples the two 

 kinds also grow generally on different trees, but sometimes 

 both kinds occur on the same tree. Who has branches that 

 bear both kinds of flowers ? On your way home you must 

 look for bees and other insects on maple flowers, and try to 

 get some flowers of the rock or sugar maple for to-morrow. 



3. TJie flowers of the White Ash. 



The boys say the sugar maple has no flowers yet, but they 

 found other tree flowers. Do you know these twigs ? Minna 

 is right ; they are twigs of the white ash. Here again we 

 find two kinds of flowers, and the boys tell me that the 

 staminate and pistillate flowers grew on separate trees. Do 

 you find the minute calyx below the stamens and the 

 ovaries ? Who will describe the shape and color of the 

 anthers ? What is the color of the pollen ? The ovaries 

 are surmounted by long styles, which have each two dark 

 purple stigmas. We called the flowers of poplars catkins ; 

 loose flowering branches like these are called panicles. Are 



