210 THE TREE BOOK 



very durable under water. You remember it 

 was the roots of the tamarack which Hiawatha 

 used to bind his canoe together. The cypress is 

 a symbol of immortality, and is much used in 

 strewing biers' and graves. 



Going back as they do to the vegetation of the 

 very earliest times, all the evergreens are sim- 

 ple in construction. They bear their stamens 

 and pistils in different flowers and depend upon 

 the wind to scatter their pollen. Because of the 

 liberality and wastefulness of their messenger, 

 they are forced to supply great quantities of the 

 yellow dust. We see it lying in sulphurous 

 streaks upon the streams in the neighborhood of 

 the evergreen forests, gusts of it are spilled and 

 scattered all about on the objects along shore. 

 Each tiny grain is as light as a fairy balloon, 

 and with reason, for each is provided with a 

 couple of minute sailing bladders. Pollen dust 

 is borne in little sacs on the lower surfaces of 

 curious shield-shaped scales, called "staminate 

 leaves." These odd scales are needles altered 

 to serve their purposes. They usually grow in 

 close tufts. The pollen blossoms of the pines 

 appear in May or June. Have you ever noticed 

 them? They are scarlet, orange, or yellow, ac- 

 cording to family preference, and massed in 

 clusters at the base of the new green shoots. 



