3Iar. 2, 190S.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.TF. 211 



The Influence of Bees on Crops. 



[Continued from page 879, November, 1907.] 



ALBERT ft ALE. 



In " The Story of the Plants," Grant Allen says, " The use of the corolla 

 with its brilliant petals, is to attract insects to the flowers and induce them 

 to carry pollen from plant to plant. That is why they are painted red and 

 blue and yellow ; they are there as advertisements to tell the bee or butterfly 

 '■'■ Here you can get good hone}' " ! If the brilliant coloured petal of flowers 

 are so attractive to bees, how is it the single blooms are more attj'active to 

 them than double ones of the same variety and species having the sajne colour ? 

 Here is the answer : The single ones produce pollen which is the all-essential 

 food supply for the young bees, but truly double bloou)s produce no anthers, 

 therefore they produce no pollen. Where bees can get the greatest supply of 

 food in the shortest space of time is the place where they will go. The}' do 

 not care what colour the corolla is, it may be "painted red, blue, or yellow," 

 the pollen and honey are the advertisements. Neither do they care what 

 colour the pollen is because they carry home white, yellow, and red pollen 

 indiscriminately, but only one colour at the same time. The cells in the 

 combs that are packed with pollen contain any colour the}- can get. Food 

 is the advertisement, and not the colour in the corolla or the petals. 



In some of our most ornamental plants the flowers are so inconspicuous 

 were it not for their foliage they would be treated as weeds and rooted out. 

 The brilliant foliage is their only recommendation. The carpet beds in our 

 Botanical Gardens during summer are one of the chief attractions to the 

 gi-ounds. They are nothing but leaves. There is no denying their brilliancy. 

 Watch as long as your patience will permit, you will never see pollen or honey- 

 feeding insects aliglit on them for the purpose of obtaining food. If the 

 clipping or trimming of these carpet beds be neglected, and the tiny flowers 

 be permitted to expand, j'ou will at once see bees and other insects alighting 

 for grains of pollen and sij^s of honey. 



The caladium and the coleus have foliage far more showy than the blooms of 

 scores of plants that are constantly visited by bees, but bright as the foliage 

 may be, the bees are not attracted thereby. When the coleus throws up its 

 .spike of pale blue flowers then it becomes attractive to insects, and tliey are 

 drawn to it, not by the colour o? the flower or the leaf, but by the food 

 contained in the fortner. 



In the month of September the peach-trees are in full bloom, so are the 

 bougainvilleas. The brilliant crimson bracts of the latter, with their small 



