. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. Christian Konkad Sprengel, [ &i! C //„ .!-;t^v///r \»ei Fi ?iedi uli \ 'iKiii j-ltrrn *fe J . 1 f'/ A Sprengel's title page. er tongues, and if beekeepers ever want to do it they can probably set an expert plant breeder to work at breeding a race of red clover with a tube short enough so that even the German honey-bee can get at its nec- tar. Natural evolution hasn't done this. Where red clover is at home bumblebees are found, and bumble- bees have no difficulty in reaching its nectar much as hawk-moths get that of a moon flower which is far
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. Christian Konkad Sprengel, [ &i! C //„ .!-;t^v///r \»ei Fi ?iedi uli \ 'iKiii j-ltrrn *fe J . 1 f'/ A Sprengel's title page. er tongues, and if beekeepers ever want to do it they can probably set an expert plant breeder to work at breeding a race of red clover with a tube short enough so that even the German honey-bee can get at its nec- tar. Natural evolution hasn't done this. Where red clover is at home bumblebees are found, and bumble- bees have no difficulty in reaching its nectar much as hawk-moths get that of a moon flower which is far beyond the reach of any kind of bee. But in the South Seas, where there are no long-tongued bees, red clover finds itself as unable to set seed as the German honey-bee is to get at its nectar. Bee and flower have evolved together where both are at home, in- to a harmony of structure that is helpful to them both. Nothing was more suggestive to Darwin in his search for evidences of evolution— or modification through descent, than this sort of harmony of structure and habit in flowers and in- sects; and one of his earliest and most effective books in bringing his views to the comprehending notice of others was the dealing with the mu- tual relations between those freaks in flowers, the orchids, and their in- sect visitors. For Sprengel's teleology, Sprengel's explanation of nectar as a means of securing fertilization was sufficient, For TJarwin's teleology, it carried another question: why? The gera- nium flower has both stamens and pistil, standing in its middle. The one might fertilize the other just as well as not, apparently, and yet this does not happen, for the pollen-bear- ing anthers of the stamens drop off before the stigmas of the pistils come to maturity. The same thing may be seen on any single-flowered "gera- nium" in a bay window or a green- house, or a summer window box or flower bed (only this "geranium" does not belong to the genus Gera- n
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
