FLOWERS AND FRUITS 147 



Some have all three of these characters ; others only one 

 or two of them. There are, however, a large number of 

 flowers which are not brightly coloured, have no sweet 

 scent, and secrete no honey. The flowers of cereals 

 and grasses for instance, wheat, barley, and ordinary 

 grasses, hazels, many willows, pine trees, etc. are good 

 examples. Insects do not visit them much, and their 

 pollen is carried from one flower to another by the wind. 



In these wind-pollinated flowers attractions to make 

 insects visit them are absent ; but instead they have 

 other special arrangements. They usually produce com- 

 paratively large amounts of pollen, which is very dry 

 and powdery, and easily blown about by the wind. The 

 stamens often hang out of the flower, so that their pollen 

 is easily shaken out by the breeze. Their stigmas, too, 

 project in a similar manner, and are often large and 

 feathery, so that they present a large surface on which 

 to catch the pollen. A comparison of such insect- 

 pollinated flowers as the bean, lime, and wild rose, with 

 such wind-pollinated flowers as those of grasses, cereals, 

 some willows, alders, pines, etc., will make these differ- 

 ences clear. 



Wind-pollinated flowers may, just as insect-pol- 

 linated flowers, have stamens and stigmas in the same 

 or in separate flowers. Many of the ordinary meadow 

 grasses, and barley, wheat, and other cereals are examples 

 of the former group ; maize, willows, hazel-nut and pines 

 of the latter. In the maize the " tassel " at the top of the 

 plant consists of a group of staminate flowers from which 

 the pollen is readily shaken out and blown about by the 

 least breeze. The beautiful " silk," which protrudes from 



