42 THE TREE BOOK 



surest of fertilization. This is the reason why 

 ripe nuts appear in such hard-to-reach places. 

 Nor is it easy to discover the blossoms, they 

 are so nearly the color of the young leaves sur- 

 rounding them. When the outer bud scales of 

 the shell-bark hickory part and curl backward 

 the form of the bud is thought to resemble 

 greatly the fleur-de-lis. Half-expanded buds 

 have been compared to opening magnolia blos- 

 soms. When the bud scales fall and the inner 

 scales "suddenly enlarge till they become four 

 or five inches long, they are then of the tex- 

 ture of heavy, velvety-piled glove kid, beauti- 

 fully fringed and of a gorgeous red or salmon 

 color." The staminate heads of the beech blos- 

 soms dangle on slender, pendulous cords. The 

 pistil-bearing flowers are found at the tips of 

 the boughs. The staminate catkins of the oaks 

 hang in clustered, swinging fringes at the base 

 of last year's shoots. The pistillate flowers 

 are few in number and borne in the axils of the 

 new leaves. 



Nature runs her business by common sense 

 methods. If all the insect^depending trees 

 bloomed at once, some would certainly be 

 neglected. So we find them waiting for one an- 

 other. This is especially discernible in a sugar 

 maple grove. Here we fiaid trees in all stages 



