Roses and Apples 33 
before any pollen is shed by the anthers, so that 
it becomes very difficult, though not impossible, to 
fertilise the seed-eggs by pollen from the same 
blossom. Another advance upon the Wild Roses is 
seen in the production of honey by the Apple 
section of the Rose family. This, of course, is to 
induce insects to visit the flowers, and the better to 
enable them to effect cross-fertilisation with pollen 
brought from another flower or another tree there 
is this peculiar arrangement of the anthers maturing 
later than the stigmas. 
It will probably occur to some of my readers that 
under such conditions the Apple-tree that flowers first 
in any district must be barren, because there would 
be no pollen available in time to fertilise the seed- 
eggs. That difficulty 1s more apparent than real. 
As a matter of fact all the flowers on a tree do not 
open at once, not even all the flowers in a small 
cluster; the central blossom in a cluster opens first, 
and the pink exteriors of the unopened buds sur- 
rounding it serve to make it more conspicuous to 
insects. Again, if no pollen touches the stigmas, these 
remain ripe for a comparatively long period, and the 
petals remain on the flower. It will thus be seen 
that failing the carriage of pollen by bees from earlier 
flowers the stigmas may receive pollen from the more 
backward anthers of their own flower, and it is pro- 
bable that most of the flowers of our large fruit trees 
are fertilised by their own pollen, but by insect 
agency. It is, however, quite clear from this earlier 
maturation of the stigmas that an occasional cross is 
desired by the tree. 
Except in size and their disposition on the tree— 
