72 



NATURE STUDY 



Btaminate flowers —• 



FisUl&te flowers- 



mens, while those with the pistils, if found in the catkin 

 at all, are at its base. There are usually three pistillate 

 flowers, surrounded by green, prickly involucre. After 

 fertilization, this involucre keeps pace with the growth 

 of the two or three fruits within, easily protecting them 

 from all enemies by reason of the prickles. The burrs 



themselves, at the ends of 

 the branches, bright yel- 

 lowish green in color, stand 

 out sharply against the 

 dark-green foliage. In the 

 fall of the year, after frosts, 

 they drop to the ground, 

 and show within a beauti- 

 ful plush-like, four-parted 

 cup, holding from one to 

 three nuts, each bearing at 

 its tip a withered pistil. 

 When there is more than one nut, the contiguous sides 

 are flattened, but the sides toward the involucre are, of 

 course, convex. 



The wind, squirrels, and small boys help to distribute 

 the chestnuts, which would otherwise exterminate each 

 other, since, if all germinated around the parent tree, 

 neither soil nor space would be sufficient for their devel- 

 opment. 



The fruits, or nuts, well protected from cold and rain 

 by the thick, shiny, brown coat, live quietly through the 

 winter, not beginning to sprout until the coming of spring 

 promises them a warm period sufficiently long to enable 

 them to attain a hardy growth before the approach of a 

 second winter. 



In the nuts are often found worms, whose existence 



Chestnut. Three youngf chestnuts 

 in the burr. Open burr. 



