THE ALDER. 201 



THE FLOWER AND SEED. 



Male and female flowers are produced on the same twig. The 

 stalk common to both springs from just below a terminal bud. It 

 presently divides and forms two slighter curved stalks, one supporting 

 a group of female flowers, each on its own short stalk, the other 

 bearing the catkins arranged in pairs, also on independent but longer 

 stalks. 



The staminate catkins are formed during one summer, and remain 

 dormant through the autumn and winter to the following spring. 

 They then expand and become from two to two-and-a-half inches 

 long. At first they are of a dull crimson colour, produced by the 

 massed tips of the closely packed stamens. As these gradually 

 separate their pollen makes a show of bright yellow, lasting until it 

 is fully ripe. It then falls, and leaves the empty cases shrivelled, 

 brown, and little noticeable. The florets themselves grow out on 

 short foot-stalks in alternate pairs from the main central stalk ot each 

 catkin. These supports are of so pale a yellow that when expanded 

 they give a curious effect almost of transparency to the catkins. The 

 male catkins on a twig vary from four to six, the smaller number 

 being most usual. In the spring the female flowers are merely little 

 pointed cylinders, hardly a quarter of an inch long. Later on their 

 vivid green colour, and still more the rough edges of the scales 

 supporting the fruits, make them noticeable, but it is not until these 

 scales have opened to allow the fruits to escape, and themselves have 

 become black and woody, that they give character to the tree. The 

 oval fruit-cones are half-an-inch in length, and remain in large 

 quantities on the trees during the winter and the ensuing spring, 

 showing like black dots on the bare twigs. 



