. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 440 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. wonderful mechanism constituted of stem, calyx, corolla, pistil and stamens. Down at the bottom of the corolla glis- tens, perhaps, the tiny drop of honey, the fragrance of which, as well as the brightness of the flower, attracts the honey-bee, and it goes merrily humming and alights upon the delicate margin of the cup-shaped corolla; and as it thrusts its little, fuzzy head into the cavity to draw up the sweet drop of nectar, the movement shakes the dust- like pollen upon its head and legs, and now doubly laden with honey an
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 440 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. wonderful mechanism constituted of stem, calyx, corolla, pistil and stamens. Down at the bottom of the corolla glis- tens, perhaps, the tiny drop of honey, the fragrance of which, as well as the brightness of the flower, attracts the honey-bee, and it goes merrily humming and alights upon the delicate margin of the cup-shaped corolla; and as it thrusts its little, fuzzy head into the cavity to draw up the sweet drop of nectar, the movement shakes the dust- like pollen upon its head and legs, and now doubly laden with honey and pollen it flies to the next flower, and, while gathering another drop, lets fall upon the pistil, eagerly awaiting to catch the sc'attered particles of pollen to fructify the ovules that lie hidden in the seed- pod of the flower. Botanists tell us that although stamens and pistils occur in the same flower, it does not follow that such flowers are fertilized by their own stamens. On the contrary, it has been proved by careful investigations and experiments that Nature has provided that pistils should be fertilized by pollen from other plants. Does it not, therefore, seem a wise pro- vision of Providence that the honey-bee should aid in conveying the frutifying medium—the pollen—from one plant to another, and thus by cross-fertilization produce better seed and more vigorous plants ? Experiments have demontrated that a pistil fertilized by the pollen of another flower, or by that of another individual of its. own kind, produces more and larger seeds, which grow into larger plants, than if it had been fertilized by the pollen of its own flower. These and many other observations prove that the peculiar structures,colors, scents, honey-secretions, and other at- tractions of flowers, and the adaptations of the different organs to each other, and their adaptation to the needs of in- sects, are intended to prevent flowers from being fertilized by their own pol- len, and to facilit
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
