THE ASPEN. 669 



pollen, which covers it with dust. The females have branched 

 stigmas, and after fertilisation a tuft of down surrounds the seeds, 

 which appear between the split halves of the stigma. 



THE MALE CATKIN. 



Towards the end of February, before the leaf-buds show any 

 sign of life, little balls, covered with grey silky down like rabbits' 

 fur, and nearly round, jut out along the twig from brown scales of 

 irregular shape. In the next stage the down has become a lighter 

 and more silvery grey, and the shape of the catkin a blunt oval. 

 It now bends over, and between layers of down the clustered 

 pollen-sacs of the stamens show their rose-vermilion tints, the whole 

 making an exquisite colour-scheme in red and grey. The scales at 

 the base have the hue and polish of a ripe chestnut, while the 

 parts protected during the winter by the overlapping outermost scales 

 show up in a lighter brown and green. When the catkins lengthen, 

 they hang down limply and in a curve, and the rlorets separate from 

 one another, enabling one to see the pale green of the central stalk 

 to which they are attached. In another week's time the catkins are 

 from two to three inches long, and powdered thickly with white 

 pollen dust, shed by the anthers. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE CATKIN. 



The male catkin consists of a green pendent axis two or three 

 inches long. From all sides of it, throughout its length, spring 

 separate rlorets, each borne on its own short stalk. The male floret 

 lists of a scale to which the stamens, four to eight or twelve in 

 number, are attached, and which is subtended by a deeply indented 

 bract, covered with long hairs. The female catkins are similar in 



