146 THE GARDEN OF EARTH 



They, too, are helping forward " fertilisation," not 

 knowing or caring about that object, any more than do 

 the winds, but intent only on getting their food. 



Through all the warm fine days of summer months 

 this goes on. Humble-bees, honey-bees, insects in 

 countless numbers, fly or creep and dive into flowers of 

 all descriptions ; and as they search for what they Vant, 

 they carry off the loosened pollen, and give it over to 

 other plants. 



What the hive-bees want and search for is not always 

 the same. Two especial needs have to be supplied : 

 pollen, for what has been called " bee-bread," and 

 sweet nectar, to be made into honey. When the workers 

 leave their hive in the early morning, they seem to be 

 " told off " for different tasks. One goes in search of 

 pollen; another in quest of a supply of nectar; but 

 never both at the same time. 



A pollen-gatherer loads her little baskets — a curious 

 arrangement of stiff hairs on her back pair of legs — and 

 often gets her whole body covered as well with the golden 

 stuff, before she returns to the hive. No light weight 

 this, for so small a creature. Yet so soon as she is 

 relieved of the burden by her sister-workers, she is off 

 again for more. 



But a nectar-gatherer has a lighter task. Her little 

 baskets are useless when she goes hunting, not for 

 honey, but for that which is to be transformed into 

 honey. We all talk conventionally of insects getting 

 " honey " from flowers. But honey, as we know it, is a 

 " manufactured article " ; ^ and the " nectar " which the 

 1 Tickner Edwardes. 



