THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



and cold is the air" when they bloom, we are safe in concluding 

 that earlier in their history they were wind-pollinated; indeed, 

 in Greenland anemophilous willows are still found. Salix is a 

 very old genus, and fossil willow leaves occur in the rocks 

 earlier than those of most modern plants. The transition in 

 the manner of pollination has probably been brought about by 

 bees, w^hich visit the catkins in great numbers for pollen. 



The willows are a bonanza to the bee-keeper, for they bloom 

 at a time when the winter stores in the hives are beginning to 

 fail, and are a great help in tiding over our cold, inclement 

 springs. They furnish the first honey of the season, and with 

 them begins the procession of the honey -plants, or plants valu- 

 able in the production of honey. A small surplus is sometimes 

 obtained, which has a pleasant aromatic taste not unlike that 

 of fruit-bloom. 



Common forest trees and shrubs, which are catkin or ament- 

 bearers {Amentiferas) and are wind-pollinated, are the poplars, 

 birches, hornbeams, bayberries, oaks, hazels, sweet-fern, wal- 

 nuts, butternuts, and hickories. The staminate and pistillate 

 catkins of the poplars are borne on different trees. When the 

 weather is clear and dry the elastic anthers expel the pollen 

 grains several inches into the air, and thus give them a fair 

 start on their journey. The bayberry is also dioecious. (Fig. 

 5.) The white, yellow, and gray birches and the hornbeams 

 are monoecious, or produce both kinds of catkins on the same 

 trees. (Fig. 6.) The staminate flowers of the oaks, hazels, 

 walnuts, and hickories are in long, drooping catkins, but the 

 pistillate or fertile flowers are solitary or few in a cluster. The 

 beech, elm, and ash are likewise wind-pollinated, but none of 

 the flowers are in catkins. In the beech the pistillate flowers 

 are in pairs, and the staminate blossoms in globose heads which 

 droop downward on long, flexible stems. The flowers of the 



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