80 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
bearing flowers there, and when she visits another 
spire of bloom this will be carried to its lowest 
blossoms, which are pistillate. 
Besides the perfectly developed pistil these lower 
flowers bear a number of stamens which, accord- 
ing to Dr. Ogle, never open, and never shed 
their stores of pollen. And the upper flowers, 
which nowadays do nothing except produce pol- 
len and make a brave show, hold in their hearts 
little green rudiments. which are significant signs 
of abandoned habits. 
For each of these is a pistil almost dwindled to 
nothingness—a reminiscence of the time when the 
horse-chestnut flowers had not yet learned co- 
operation. 
The long stamens of these topmost flowers have 
an upward curve which brings their anthers against 
the hairy hinder parts of their favorite visitor, 
the bumble-bee. And when the insect flies to 
the lower florets of the next spire, the long, curv- 
ing pistils touch the same spot on her body and 
receive the pollen they need, 
When the upper flowers of the spire have given 
away all their pollen they fall and strew the ground 
beneath the trees. The horse-chestnuts are cousins 
to the maples, and are not even distantly related 
