BLOSSOM-TIME 39 



chains of stamens and scales. We may readily 

 detect the staminate buds, in winter time, shin- 

 ing brightly on the bushes. The pistillate ones 

 are demurely hidden under their scaly buds. 

 They burst forth in tiny crimson star clusters 

 — "the most richly colored flowers of earliest 

 spring." 



The slender drooping catkins of both alders 

 and hazels swing with the slightest breath, send- 

 ing forth showers of light, dry pollen for the 

 wind to waft onward. And a most reckless, 

 wasteful messenger he is, "dropping quanti- 

 ties to the ground, and blowing other quanti- 

 ties to the four points of the compass!" But 

 there is enough and to spare. For every bunch 

 of eight or ten hazel florets, Nature has lavishly 

 prepared at least one catkin with from three to 

 eight hundred ' stamens, each shedding innu- 

 merable pollen grains. And she has been no 

 less provident with the alders. 



Closely following the tassels of hazel and 

 alder, come the humble, greenish flower clusters 

 of their neighbor, the soft maple. A little later 

 the red maple of lawns and village streets puts 

 forth its bloom. Both these trees bear stami- 

 nate and pistillate flowers, the kinds being eas- 

 ily distinguishable, even when the lowest 

 branches are away above our heads. The 



