covered. Apple trees have a beautiful pink, or pink and white flower,
and the Almond tree bears a lovely pink flower. All other trees have
flowers too, but they are often small. The flowers of the Oak and the
Beech are small, but, though you may not notice them, they are on the
tree each spring.

Almost all plants, including large trees, have flowers--they are
flowering plants. Just a few plants have no flower; ferns have none, nor
have the mosses and lichens which grow on walls and rocks and on the
stems of trees. Fungi, too, such as the mushroom, have no flowers.
Nearly all other plants have flowers. It is by the flower or blossom
that a plant is reproduced. After the flower has faded comes the fruit
and seed; the seed falls into the ground or is sown, and from it springs
another plant. Without the flower there would be no seed.

You see that there are rather more flowers than you had thought. Still,
while we are strolling in the fields and lanes at Willow Farm, we shall
look most at what are generally called flowers; we shall look at
comparatively small plants in which the flower or blossom is easily
noticed because it is large, or bright-coloured, or sweet-scented. But
while we are admiring a Daisy or a Dandelion in the spring, we must not
forget that the great Oak-tree above it also has a flower of its own--we
must remember that the Oak-tree also is a flowering plant.




CHAPTER II

IN THE COPPICE