APRIL SIGNS. 29 
Nearly all flowering plants are divided into the two 
great groups of wind-fertilized (anemophilous) and in- 
sect-fertilized (entomophilous) flowers. In the early 
spring, while the hordes of insects are not yet astir, but 
while the winds are never sleeping in their efforts to 
restore the equilibrium of the atmosphere disturbed 
by the northward progress of the sun, the anemophilous 
flowers hasten to open. The catkins of the alders, wil- 
lows, poplars, hazels, birches, oaks, walnuts, butternut, 
beech, sweet-fern, sweet gale, bayberry, hornbeam and 
hop-hornbeam, which were formed during the preceding 
summer, now scatter their fertilizing pollen freely and 
abundantly to the wooing breezes. These flowers lack 
the color and the perfume which render so many ento- 
mophilous flowers so attractive. Not depending on the 
visits of insects to secure fertilization, they do not need 
the attractive charms which would bring them. They 
do need projecting stamens laden with pollen, most of 
which may be wasted—for Nature is in many ways 
reckless in the use of her material,—but enough will 
remain to accomplish the desired purpose. The fact 
that the leaves of these trees and shrubs are not yet 
expanded would seem to indicate that Nature does not 
wish to interpose unnecessarily any obstacle to the pol- 
len on its journey to the waiting stigma. 
But the general interest does not lie in such flowers 
as these, consisting as they do mainly of the essential 
