Lily-kin and Rose-kin 147 
of stamens, or, to speak strictly, of reduced 
staminate flowers, inserted directly on the central 
stalk and mingled with long hairs. By latter July 
the stamens have shed their pollen and shrivelled, 
and they and their accompanying hairs have 
dropped off, leaving a bare stalk behind them. 
The darker and more substantial lower-story is a 
Fic. 35.—Single florets of the cat-tail flag. 
a, Young staminate (or male) floret; 4, older staminate (or male) floret; c, pis- 
tillate (or female) floret. 
mass of blossoms, each reduced to a little stalk 
bearing one pistil and a few bristles. When the 
ovaries have ripened into minute fruits—not seeds, 
though we should incline to call them so—the bristles 
will buoy them up on the autumn winds and enable 
them to fly far in search of new homes (Fig. 35). 
To the evolutionary botanist the little stalk 
