THE WAYFARING TREE 



803 





FLOWERS OF THE WAYFARING TREE. 



at the ends of the shoots. Each lias five 

 petals. Only those central in the group 

 are true flowers and have stamens and 

 pistils producing fruit. These, crowded 

 together, are ringed round with sham 

 flowers consisting of greatly enlarged 

 petals, but petals only ; an arrangement 

 not found elsewhere among our trees or 

 shrubs, though similar to that of the 

 garden Hydrangea. The one purpose 

 of this outer ring of sham flowers is to 

 render the whole cluster more conspicuous. 

 These enlarged petals act as signal flags 

 for the guidance of insect visitors. Bees 

 come mainly for pollen, but numerous 

 flies sip from the exposed honey store. 

 The Snowball Tree of the 

 garden differs only in having 

 all its flowers sham ; all, and 

 not an outer ring merely, 

 exhibiting enlarged petals, 

 lacking vital organs, and pro- 

 ducing no fruit. The fruits 

 of the wild shrui:), gathered 

 into a rounded cluster, are 

 stone fruits, each with a single 

 stone. Their brilliant ruby 

 ripeness is all too quickly 

 effective, to our liking, in 

 attracting the birds, to the 

 entire despoiling of this 

 shruli's autumn adornment ; 

 but the plant's racial neces- 

 sity is l^est served thereby 

 tlirough the assured dispersal 

 of tJie seeds. 



THE WAYFARING TREK 



Nominally a tree, this can never 

 rank as more than a shrub, 

 though under favourable con- 

 ditions it may attain a fair height. 

 Closely allied to the preceding, 

 and sometimes spoken of as the 

 Mealy Guelder Rose, it shows 

 marked differences. It loves the 

 drier places, and is usually abun- 

 dant and flourishing on the chalk. 

 Its general appearance is dusty, 

 and for this reason, perhaps, the 

 title "wayfaring" has been at- 

 tached to it, as also that of 

 "mealy." Its main stems grow 

 more nearly upright than those of 

 the Guelder Rose, and its stouter 

 twigs, thickly felted with grey 

 hairs, stand out stiffly to right 

 and left. 



The buds, in opposite pairs, have at 

 first two tiny scales, but these fall early, 

 so that practically throughout the whole 

 winter the folded leaves are quite un- 

 protected except by their dense hairy 

 coating. They are long and narrow, and 

 are pressed up against the twig ; the form 

 and veining of the folded leaves are quite 

 apparent, and there is even the com- 

 mencement of a stalk, though not so 

 pronounced as in the buds of the Alder. 

 Terminating some of the twigs are the 

 large, rounded flower buds, or flower- 

 bud clusters, each cluster attended to 

 right and left by an upstanding leaf bud. 



i^^^Alk. 



FkUrrS OF THE WAYFARING TKl.E. 



