On one branch the tassels are all golden yellow. The flowers that make up these yellow tassels have neither flower leaves nor pistils. Each blossom has two stamens which are fastened to a little fringed leaf, and nothing more. Such a flower, much magnified, is given in the picture (Fig. 197). The golden color comes from the yellow pollen which has been shaken from the dust boxes. [Illustration: FIG. 197] The other branch is covered with silvery green tassels. Each flower in these tassels is made up of a single pistil, which is also fastened to a little fringed leaf (Fig. 198). [Illustration: FIG. 198] So you see the building plan used by one kind of pussy-willow flowers is nothing but two stamens; while the plan used by the other kind is still simpler, it is nothing but one pistil. The golden dust is carried by the bees from the willows which bear dust boxes to those other willows whose flowers have only seedboxes. When they have given to the bees their pollen, the yellow tassels fade away; but the silvery green tassels, on account of their seedboxes, grow large and ripe, turning into the fruit shown in Fig. 62, p. 61; and this fruit is one of the kind which scatters its seeds abroad by fastening them to silky sails. [Illustration: Decoration] ALDERS AND BIRCHES There is another shrub or low tree growing along the brook’s edge which flowers almost as early as the willows. This is the alder. Perhaps you noticed last fall that these alders were hung with a quantity of little green tassels. These tassels did not fall off with the leaves in November. Through the long winter they clung to the shrub. Sometimes they wore little coats of ice which made them look like the glass ornaments on a Christmas tree. When the warm weather came, they put off their ice coats, and grew larger and longer, and at last let out a quantity of stamens. [Illustration: FIG. 199] But on the same alder tree that bears these tassels with flowers made up of stamens or dust boxes (Fig. 199, _a_), you find also the tassels flowers made up of pistils (Fig. 199, _b_). If you make a search, you will find the little upright clusters composed of these flowers with pistils. Late in the year, when these clusters have turned into fruit, they look like this picture (Fig. 200). [Illustration: FIG. 200] The pretty birches are cousins to the alders, and keep house in much the same way, bearing the tassels with stamens (Fig. 201, _a_) and the little clusters made up of flowers with pistils (Fig. 201, _b_) on the same tree. [Illustration: FIG. 201] The tassels on some of the birches are very beautiful. When full grown, they are golden yellow, and so long and soft and graceful that one feels like stroking them and playing with them as he would with a kitten.