The Flowering of the Forest Trees 77 
bore both stamens and fruits. For here and there 
on the boughs of this species a pistil can be 
found standing between two stamens. The modest 
trio attract no attention, by color, petals, or fra- 
grance. Yet the technical botanist calls the little 
’ 
group ‘‘a perfect flower,’’ and the evolutionary 
botanist sees in it an indication that once all 
ash-flowers contained both stamens and pistil and 
each tree was sufficient to itself. 
Fic. 13.—Perfect (2), staminate (4), and pistillate (c) flowers of 
the European ash (fraxinus excelsior), (All magnified.) 
The European ash, frequently cultivated in parks 
and gardens, is an individualist even to this day. 
Parted from all its kind by leagues of sea, like 
Crusoe on his island, it could take entire charge 
of its own affairs and carry them to a successful 
conclusion. The stamens and pistils are borne 
always on the same tree, and often in the same 
flower (Fig. 13). 
