GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



either wo visits in some cases, or in others 

 only one or two. 



Again, during a certain time the number 

 of visits made by honeybees and bumble- 

 bees to the flowers of the garden squash 

 were counted. There were a great many 

 visits. The big cup-shaped corollas were 

 then cut off close to the green calyx. The 

 result was the same as with the pear-blos- 

 soms — the naked flowers received few or 

 no visits. 



The flowers of the common borage were 

 then observed in the same way, and yielded 

 similar results — the denuded flowers were 

 neglected. In one of the experiments with 

 borage there were scattered on the ground 

 many partially Avithered corollas, and twice 

 a bee was seen to fly down to them. With 

 a lens 1 examined three of the defoliated 

 blossoms, and in two of them I found eight 

 or nine small drops of nectar, so that a 

 bee alighting on them would have been 

 richly rewarded for its discernment. 



These experiments show conclusively that 

 bright-colored petals are an advantage in 

 attracting the visits of bees. It is clear 

 that they were guided bj- the presence of 

 the petals; and that, when the corollas 

 were absent, they spent no time in seeking 

 for nectar in the defoliated blossoms, but 

 confined their attention to the flowers pos- 

 sessing petals. Note that they flew to the 

 withered corollas lying on the ground, 

 which, of course, were nectarless. We can 

 discover brilliant flowers more easily than 

 we can gi-een or dull-colored ones. It would 

 be strange indeed if this were not the case 

 with the honeybee; and it would seem as 

 though a grave mistake had been made. 

 A priori reasoning may be safel}^ used 

 when it is conflrmed by experiment; and 

 hei'e the experiments will convince any 

 fair-minded person that the bees saw and 

 were influenced by the bright corollas. 



Mr. Ryan showed keen observation in 

 noticing the red coloring on the outside of 

 the apple-blossom. In New England the 

 whole outside of the young blossom of the 

 wood anemone (Anemone quinque folia), 

 which blooms dui'ing the last of April, 

 when Avinds are chill and snow still lingers 

 in the ravines, is often colored purplish 

 red. Red coloring may be observed on 

 many other floAver-buds, leaf -buds, and on 

 young leaves in early spring. Because a 

 pigment is useful in some instances in ren- 

 dering floAvers conspicuous, it does not fol- 

 loAv that in other cases its role may not be 

 entirely different. It is believed that red 

 coloration is often beneficial to plants in 

 raising their temperature by converting 

 light rays into heat. 



That red coloration does actually raise 

 the temperature can be shoAvn by the fol- 

 lowing experiment. Place some red leaves,. 

 the superficial area of which has been 

 measured, in a small glass flask of water. 

 In another flask containing an equal quan- 

 tity' of Avater i^ut a few green leaves with 

 the same extent of surface as the red leaves. 

 Place a thermometer in each flask; close 

 them and set them in the sunlight. After 

 a time the Avater in the flask containing the 

 red leaves will be found to be 4 degrees 

 C. aboA'e the temperature of the Avater 

 containing the green leaves. The water in 

 the second flask will also be a little Avarmer 

 than at first, as the green leaves produce 

 some heat. On a cold day in springtime, 

 when the air is near the freezing-point, 

 an increase of only 4 degrees C. might be 

 a great benefit to a plant. In the same way 

 red styles may aid the groAvth of the pollen- 

 tubes. 



No doubt some confusion has been pro- 

 duced in regard to nectar-guides by some 

 observers supposing that all dots, stripes, 

 and markings Avere intended for this pur- 

 pose. Of course the s;;lashes, maciilations, 

 marblings, and variegations produced un- 

 der cultivation by the artificial selection of 

 the florist have no bearing on this question, 

 except to shoAv that markings can be pro- 

 duced easily by selection. But there are 

 many floAvers Avhich have yellow spots, or 

 marks of some color, directly over the 

 nectaries; so, too, there are flowers with 

 colored lines leading directly to the nectar; 

 or in long tubular flowers the path the in- 

 sect should travel is indicated in various 

 ways. I see no reason why these path- 

 finders may not be helpful in guiding bees 

 to the nectar, on the same principle that a 

 way blazed through the forest by scarfing 

 the trees is heljiful to the lumberman. That 

 such marks are sometimes correlated with 

 the nectaries is shoAvn b}' the fact that in 

 pelargonium. Avhen the nectaries disappear, 

 the nectar-guides also vanish. 



No one to-day claims that all the mark- 

 ings on flowers are nectar-indicators. Two 

 hues are an advantage in the same flower, 

 since, by contrasting with each other, each 

 is made more conspicuous than Avhen alone. 

 The value of such color contrasts is well 

 shown by the Compositae. Here the field 

 daisy has a yelloAv disk and white rays; the 

 cone floAver a dark-brown disk and yellow 

 rays, while the aster has a j^ellow or brown 

 disk surrounded by blue rays. Red veins 

 in green sei)als are probably the result of 

 oxidation and the production of anthocyan 

 as a by-product. Nectar-giiides seem no 

 more remarkable than nectar-covers, or the 



