THE MEANING OE THE EEOWER 
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find only three of the sections. In the Easter lily, for 
instance, the green calyx of the bud becomes the waxy 
white corolla of the flower. The carpels are united to 
form one long pistil; you can see it thrusting itself out 
beyond the yellow stamens. Many flowers, again, do not 
possess both pistil and stamens; in this case the flowers 
may grow in pairs, as the flowers of the oak. The male 
or pollen-bearing flower containing the stamens is called 
the staminate flower, the female or pollen-receiving 
flower containing the pistil is the pistillate flower. 
Staminate Flower Pistillate Flower 
There they hang from the bough, mother and father 
catkins of the oak, side by side, waving gently in the 
breeze. The pollen-bearing flowers droop like so many 
beads on a string, several strings hanging from the same 
point, fringe-like; all flowers which grow like that are 
called “catkins.” The mother flowers, the pistillates, hide 
shyly up under the axils of the leaves, just where you 
