The Flowering of the Forest Trees 81 
to the chestnuts, which they resemble only in de- 
pendence upon the ministrations of insects and in 
the custom of late blooming. 
For the chestnuts, too, blossom much later than 
most of the forest-trees, hanging out long, pollen- 
bearing flower-clusters, which are odorous and con- 
spicuous to lure the flies, upon whose ministrations 
the life of the species depends. 
The heavy scent of the blossoms is unpleasant 
to most people, but we are not the individuals 
concerned in the case. The faint suggestion of 
putridity is attractive to the many flies which hum 
around the branches in the warm June sunshine. 
They dust their bodies with pollen from the 
creamy spires, and then carry the life-giving dust 
to the pistillate flower-cluster, which ripens, later, 
into the chestnut-bur and its contents. 
The prickly bur is developed from a little circle 
of scales which has surrounded a pair or a trio 
of pistillate flowers. Each chestnut is a ripened 
ovary, and the little tail atop is the remains of 
the style and stigma. 
It is surmised that the chestnut flowers, like 
those of the ash-trees, once had both stamens and 
pistils, alike perfect in development, so that each 
blossom produced both pollen and ovules. What 
