Wild-Flower Study 



SSI 



Cat-tail flag in blossom. 



The staminate flowers are massed at the tip, and the pistillate flowers which form the "cat-tail" 



are massed lower down on the stalk. 



Photo by Verne Morton. 



THE CAT-TAIL 

 Teacher's Story 

 In June and early July, if the cat-tail be closely observed, it will be 

 seen to have the upper half of the cat's tail much narrower and different 

 in shape from the lower half — as if it were covered with a quite different 

 fur. It seems to be clothed with a fine drooping fringe of olive-yellow. 

 With the aid of a lens, we can see that this fringe is a mass of crowded 

 anthers, two or three of them being attached to the same stalk by a short 

 filament. These anthers are packed full of pollen, which is sifted down 

 upon the pistillate flowers below by every breeze; and with every puff of 

 stronger wind, the pollen is showered over all neighboring 

 flowers to the leeward. There is not much use in trying 

 to find the pistillate flowers in the plush of the cat-tail. 

 They have no sepals nor petals, and are so imbedded in 

 the thick pappus which forms the plush that the search 

 is hardly worth while for nature-study, unless a micro- 

 scope is used. The ovary is rather long, the style slender, 

 and the stigma reaches out to the cut-plush surface of the 

 cat -tail. The pupils can find what these flowers are by 

 studying the seed; in fact, the seed does not differ very 

 much from the flower, except that it is mature and is 

 browner in color. 

 It is an interesting process to take apart a cat -tail plant; the lower, 

 shorter leaves surround the base of the plant, giving it size and strength. 

 All the leaves have the same general shape, but vary in length. Each leaf 

 consists of the free portion, which is long and narrow and flat towards its 

 tapering tip but is bent into a trough as it nears the plant, and the lower 



A cat-tail seed 

 with its balloon. 



