300 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
kinds, are greenish white in colour, and form what 
are called ‘catkins.’ The term ‘catkin’ will be 
referred to hereafter, and it may appropriately be 
defined in this place. A catkin, then,—to give it 
a general description—is a kind of spiked in- 
florescence, or system of little flowers: a cluster of 
tiny flowers, in fact, borne like a tassel on a 
delicate thread-like stem. It usually grows near 
the extremities of the Tree stem, and it hangs 
dependent from the twig on which it is fastened, 
drooping gracefully like fringe. The first Oak 
catkins, which appear, as we have said, almost 
contemporaneously with the first young leaves of 
spring, contain only stamens—the male organs of 
plants, furnished with the mysterious fertilizing 
dust or pollen. Then follow smaller and less 
conspicuous catkins, bearing the pistils—the fe- 
male organs of plants—with their accompaniment 
of ovaries—the fruit or seed—which in the Oak, 
as we know, is the acorn. The rudimentary 
acorns on the seed catkins are, at first, tiny little 
bodies. When the stamen-bearing catkins 
have performed their office of shedding pollen, 
they drop from the Tree. But the acorn catkins 
