7O NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 
pollen for the whole plantation. It is customary to plant every fourth 
or fifth row with the perfect-flowered kind. 
If you have a strawberry bed, examine the flowers when in bloom and 
see whether all of them are perfect. If you find that many of them have 
only pistils, see what provision has been made to supply these blossoms 
with pollen. 
5. Indian corn. — When the tassels on the corn are developed, 
examine them, find the stamens, and note the abundance of pollen that 
comes from them. 
Note that no pistils 
are to be found in the 
tassels. Now ex- 
amine the young ear. 
That is a cluster of 
pistillate flowers. 
Each kernel is an 
ovary. Note that 
one thread of the 
“silk” extends from 
STRAWBERRY BLossoms 
a, perfect flower; 6, imperfect flower. Note the 
prominent stamens in (a) around the pistils at the each kernel to the 
center, and the absence of these stamens in (0). outside of the husk. 
That thread is the 
style and at its tip is the stigma. If any of these styles are too short to 
reach the outside so as to expose the stigma to the pollen that is 
floating in the air, their kernels will not develop and there will be gaps 
on the cob when the ear is ripe. 
6. Pussy willows. — The “pussies” are the blossoms of the willows. 
A single pussy is composed of a large number of tiny flowers growing 
close together on a stem. A flower-cluster like this the botanist calls a 
catkin. This, you notice, means a little cat, a ‘‘ pussy.” 
On the willows and the poplars, the stamens and pistils are in separate 
catkins and on separate trees, one tree bearing only staminate or pollen- 
forming flowers and another tree only pistillate or seed-forming flowers. 
The pollen-forming flowers make the prettier pussies. 
These things should be learned directly from nature. Early in the 
spring gather a handful of twigs from eight or ten different trees, place 
them in jars of water, and put in a warm, sunny window. The warm 
temperature will hasten the development of the catkins before the 
