. The natural history of the farm : a guide to the practical study of the sources of our living in wild nature . Natural history. 214 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE FARM. proboscis and thrusts its tip downward between the bases of the stamens into the nectar dish, lapping up what she can reach. Then she raises her head and pushes her body through and over the central clump of stamens and style tips, and makes another downward thrust on the other side. In doing this, she brushes roughly against bursting anthers, filling the hairy coat of her body and legs with pollen; and she rubs stigmas, also, deposi
. The natural history of the farm : a guide to the practical study of the sources of our living in wild nature . Natural history. 214 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE FARM. proboscis and thrusts its tip downward between the bases of the stamens into the nectar dish, lapping up what she can reach. Then she raises her head and pushes her body through and over the central clump of stamens and style tips, and makes another downward thrust on the other side. In doing this, she brushes roughly against bursting anthers, filling the hairy coat of her body and legs with pollen; and she rubs stigmas, also, depositing pollen upon their moist tips. Figure 83 shows where the nectar is, and explains these movements of the bees. The nectar is in a basin, out of the center of which arise the five stout styles, and it is fenced round about by a close-set palisade of stamens. It can be reached only from above. It cannot all be reached from any one position (hence the successive thrusts of the bee into the flower). Owing to the close crowding of the stamens and pistils, it can only be reached by a slender proboscis. This feast is not to be wasted on any wandering insect that may come along; it is reserved for those that are endowed with suitable nectar-gathering apparatus. A little burrowing bee, Halictus by name, descends upon the flower and goes tip-toeing upon the top of the stamen cluster. She has a short proboscis that is quite unequal to reaching down to the nectar-cup: so she gathers pollen and in trampling about over the anthers tramples the stigmas as well and deposits pollen on them. A little green-and-gold bee, Augochlora by name, of size intermediate between Fig. 83. Diagram of a section of an apple blos- som, j, sepal; k, petal; i, anthers; m, stigmas; n, Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
