The Flowering of the Forest Trees 79 
ticed to the boughs by them, and bearing their 
powdered gold on her body, she will visit some 
sister-flower, which is in botanical language ‘ per- 
fect,’ and from which will develop, later, the 
horse-chestnut bur. 
On the blooming spire there are scores of flow- 
ers, but if we look at the branch again, in later 
summer, we will see that only six or eight of 
them have set their seed. The rest have per- 
ished, as the worker-ants do, leaving no descend- 
ants; the only memento of their lives will be the 
work done. for the community into which they 
were born. 
The perfect blossoms of the horse-chestnut grow 
near the base of the spire of bloom. Their friend, 
the bee, works from the ground upward, and all 
the bee-flowers, which grow in spikes or bunches, 
have adapted themselves to this habit of their 
favorite messenger. 
When she comes to a branch of horse-chestnut 
blossoms she is probably already dusted with pol- 
len from another cluster. With this she flies to 
the lowest flowers of the spire, which are pistil- 
bearing, and therefore want pollen and have a use 
for it. Then, rising into the top of the spire, she 
takes on a fresh load of pollen from the stamen- 
