The Flowering of the Forest Trees 69 
so that spring breezes can easily detach it from 
the stamens and carry it fast and far. 
And their stigmas are more or less branched and 
hairy, so that they can readily catch the pollen as 
it flies by. 
By time the tender leaves are large enough to 
cast their shadows on the ground, the pollen 
messages of the trees have been delivered by the 
wind, and the precious seed is set (Fig. 9). 
The walnut, butternut, hickory, oak, beech, hazel- 
nut, and ironwood trees are all what botanists call 
‘‘ moneecious.’’ That is to say, their stamens and 
pistils are borne on the same tree, though not in 
the same blossom. The stamens of all these trees 
grow in little, close clusters, which are dotted, like 
rosary beads, all down the length of a slender, 
pendulous cord. Each stamen cluster is partly 
covered by a scale or hood, which in a measure 
prevents the pollen from being washed away by 
spring rains. 
On the walnut, two or three of these stamen- 
chains come out of one bud; on the oak, six or 
seven issue from a single ring of bud-scales (Fig. 
10). Indeed, as a rule these dangles, which are 
each and every one a whole community of asso- 
ciated stamens, grow in family groups, so that the 
