POLLEN. 



833 



POLLEN. 



Cross-fertilization among some plants is 

 brought about by the male and female or- 

 gans, the stamens and pistils being located 

 in different flowers, sometimes on the same 

 plant or tree, and again on separate trees 

 In the willows, for example, the male cat- 

 kins, that is, the portion of the flower bear- 

 ing the stamens, appear on one tree while 

 the pistils appear on another. This technic- 

 ally is called staminate and pistillate inflor- 

 escence. As the willows are a source of 

 honey as well as pollen, and as they come to 

 bloom very early in the season, it is apparent 

 that bees must play a large part in their 

 cross-pollination. Common cases of male 

 and female flowers on the same plant aie 

 found in the butternut, hickory, birches, 

 oaks, and hazels. In some instances tie 

 male portion of the flower comes to maturity 

 before the female and vice versa. In others 

 there seems to be an effort on the part of 

 nature, through a special form and arrange- 

 ment of the parts of the flower, to prevent 

 self-fertilization. In this case it appears 

 that the bee, or some insect, must carry the 

 pollen from one plant to the other. 



Common corn is an illustration of a 

 class of plants that bear both kinds of 

 blossoms on the same plant. The blos- 

 som that bears the seed is low down, and is 



RAGWEED AND CORN, SHOWING THE TWO 

 KINDS OF BLOSSOMS ON ONE STALK. 



what we commonly term the silk of the ear. 

 The one that bears the pollen is at the very 

 summit of the stalk, and the pollen, when 

 ripe, is shaken off and falls on the silk 

 below ; or, what is still better, it is wafted 

 by the wind to the silk of the neighboring 

 stalks, thus preventing in-and-in breeding, 

 in a manner strikingly analogous to the way 

 in which the drones fly out in the air, that 

 the chances may be greatly in favor of their 



meeting queens other than those from tlieir 

 own hives. You may object, that the silk 

 from the ear of corn is not properly a flower, 

 so we will give you a more striking instance. 



The common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisi- 

 a- folia , i\\so sometimes called bitterweed, or 

 hogweed, bears two distinct and entirely 

 inilike flowers. On the ends of the tall 

 racemes, as at B, the pollen-bearing blos- 

 soms are seen very conspicuously; and 

 many of you who are familiar with the 

 weed, perhaps never imagined that it had 

 any other blossom at all. If so, will you 

 please go outdoors and take a look at them 

 again V Right close to the main stem, 

 where the branches all start out, you will 

 find a very pretty little flower; however it 

 possesses no color except green, and it is 

 here where all the seeds are borne, as you 

 will see on some of the branches wliere they 

 are matured. Now, if you will get up early 

 in the morning you will find that these 

 plants,when shaken, give off a little cloud of 

 fine green dust, and this is the pollen of the 

 plant of which we have been speaking. As 

 ihf se plants are in no way dependent on bees 

 for the fertilization of their blossoms, they 

 contain no honey, or at least ■« e nev^r were 

 able to detect any; although we have, during 

 two seasons, seen the bees quite busily en- 

 gaged gathering the pollen. It is said that 

 corn sometimes bears honey as well as pol- 

 len, although we have never been able to get 

 proof of it. These two plants, as we have 

 before remarked, seem to insure crossing the 

 seed with other plants of the same variety, 

 by bearing the pollen-bearing flowers aloft, 

 on slender stalks; also by furnishing a 

 great preponderance in numbers of these 

 blossoms, for precisely the same reason that 

 a thousand or more drones are reared to one 

 queen. A stalk that succeeds in pushing 

 itself above the others, and bearing a pro- 

 fusion of pollen-flowers, will probably be the 

 father, so to speak, of a multitude of the ris- 

 ing generation; and this process, repeated 

 for generations, would develop just the ten- 

 dency of corn and ragweed, to shoot up tall 

 spires, clothed with an exuberance of the 

 pollen-bearing blossoms. As the plants that 

 give the greatest distance on the stalk be- 

 tween the lower (or seed) blossoms, ami the 

 upper ones, are most likely to shed the pol- 

 len on neighboring plants, this, too, fosters 

 the tendency mentioned. 



But what shall the great multitude of 

 plants do that have no tall spires with 

 wliich to shake their pollen to the breezesy 

 Here is where the bees come in and fulfill 



