The Seniors of the Forest 289 
give their pollen to the breezes the pistillate 
blossoms are ready to turn it to good account. 
The staminal leaf is a rudimentary affair, but its 
affinity is, if possible, more rudimentary still. In 
the heart of a freshly-opened pea-blossom there is 
already an extremely small, but perfectly formed, 
pod. Suppose we pluck away from the pea-flower 
its calyx, corolla, and stamens, till nothing but 
this tiny pod is left. Now if we split it we shall 
find within it a number of minute peas. If we 
pick off all these except two, the remnant, a naked 
and opened pod with two peas, will be equivalent 
to the ‘‘carpel’’ of most native cone-bearers. 
The young cone is a community of carpels, each 
having its pair of attached ovules, and all arranged 
spirally about a woody axis. The very young 
‘‘berry’’ of a red cedar or a juniper is a close 
ring of carpels enclosing a few ovules. And in 
both these cases the entire cluster is regarded as a 
single pistillate flower. 
The ovule of the yew lives alone and is a 
tillate flower’’ all by itself. It is partly enveloped 
“* Dis- 
by small scales, and a little ring-shaped disk closely 
invests its base. 
Among the red cedars, junipers, and yews some. 
individuals bear pistillate flowers only, while others 
