POLLEN. 



334 



POLLEN. 



their allotted task in the work of animal 

 and vegetable life. They would, it is true, 

 visit many i)lants for the pollen alone ; but 

 with by far the greater part of them the 

 pollen is only a secondary consideration, or 

 not sought for at all. In vieing with one an- 

 other, or in the strife to perpetuate their 

 species, what will the plant do to offer the 

 greatest attraction to the bees to visit them, 

 and carry the precious pollen to the neigh- 

 boring blossoms, for the purpose we have 

 mentioned? Suppose we wish to gather a 

 group of school-children about us, what will 

 be the surest and most effectual method of do- 

 ing it? Coax them with candy, maple sugar, 

 and the like, of course; and that is just what 

 the plant does ; or it does still more, for it 

 ransacks its storehouse, and, we dare say, 

 sends its roots abroad through the soil, with 

 untiring efforts, to steal a more delicious 

 and enticing nectar, more wonderfully ex- 

 quisite tlian even the purest and most trans- 

 parent maple-sugar syrup ever distilled or 

 " boiled bown" by the skill of man, for the 

 sole purpose of coaxing the bees to come and 

 dust themselves in their precious pollen, or 

 to bring from some other blossom the pol- 

 len they have previously been dusted with. 

 Now, this honey is precious, and it must tax 

 the plant to its utmost to produce it. Nature, 

 therefore, who is a most careful economist, 

 not only deals it out in small doses, but she 

 places it in the most cunning nooks and cor- 

 ners, that the bee may be obliged to twist 

 itself into all possible shapes, around and 

 among the stamens, until the pollen is most 

 surely dusted all over it. Observe that the 

 flower secretes no honey until the pollen 

 is ripe and ready to do its work ; that the 

 honey slowly exudes into the nectaries, 

 that the bees may be kept coming and lick- 

 ing it out every hour in the day ; and that 

 the flow of honey ceases just as soon as the 

 pollen is ripened and gone. A lady has sug- 

 gested a beautiful experiment to determine 

 the amount of honey yielded by the spider- 

 flower, Cleome. She tied lace over the stalk, 

 to keep away the bees that were constantly 

 visiting it. The honey collected in quite a 

 large drop. We could measure the amount 

 in m.my other plants by a similar mothod. 

 The little cups on the flower of the Fig- 

 wort we have seen full to the brim with 

 honey, when found standing alone out in 

 the woods. Truly : 



Full many a flower Is born to blush unseen, 

 And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 



Did you ever notice the spot of fur, or 

 down, on the back of the bee, just between 



the wings? Well, bee-hunters sometimes 

 put a small drop of white paint on this spot, 

 that they may know a bee when it comes 

 back. Several years ago bees were going 

 into many of the hives, with a spot of white 

 on this fur that looked, at first sight, al- 

 most like white paint. For several seasons 



Honey-bee enlarged four times; bee louse on its 

 back. See Enemies of Bees. 



in succession we hunted in vain to see where 

 they got this white spot. At one time it 

 seemed to come from working on thistles; but 

 we were obliged to give this up, for we f oinid 

 it most on the bees one season when they 

 did not notice thistles at all. One swarm of 

 beautiful Italians that filled their hive nice- 

 ly in September, had a white back on almost 

 every bee. We lined them from the hive, 

 and followed them. They went toward a 

 large piece of wild woodland, and we scanned 

 the tops of the trees in vain; finally, over 



Flower of the VTild Touch-me-not, showing the 



manner in wliieh the bee gets the 



pollen on its back. 



between the hills, beside a brook, we found 

 acres of the wild touch-me-not (Impatiens), 

 the same plant that we have often played 

 with in childhood, because the queer little 

 seed-pods will snap all to pieces when ripe, 

 if they are touched ever so carefully. The 

 honey is secreted in the spur of the flow- 

 er, shown at B. 



