GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



green, the former would be the more likely 

 to be pollinated. 



T later repeated this experiment, and per- 

 formed many others in which the brighter- 

 colored objects received the gi'eater number 

 of visits. From these experiments we con- 

 clude that any surface, whether it is bright 

 or dull colored, on which there is nectar 

 or honey, will be freely visited by bees for 

 stores after these liquids have once been 

 discovered; but they will not be discovered 

 as quickljr on a surface which does not con- 

 trast in hue with its surrounding's as on one 

 which does so contrast. In other words, 

 bright-colored flowers have the advantage 

 over green ones. 



After a flower has been found by insects 

 the number of visits it receives depends 

 upon the quantity of nectar it contains and 

 not on its color or odor. Many gaudy gar- 

 den exotics offer neither pollen nor nectar. 

 Honeybees visit them occasionally, as 1 

 have observed; but, finding nothing to re- 

 pay them, they afterward remember their 

 former experience and seldom jiay any at- 

 tention to them. 



Mr. Eyan states correctly that the poppy 

 contains no nectar, and apparently thinks 

 that there is, therefore, no reason why it 

 should be visited by insects. The poppy 

 is a pollen flower. Insects visit it for 

 pollen only. The roses are also iDollen 

 flowers. DiTring the past summer I was 

 astonished to observe how many bee visitors 

 there were, and how cjuickly they removed 

 all of the ample supply of pollen from the 

 JajDan roses {Rosa rugosa) blooming in 

 ray garden. There is no need of the roses 

 secreting- nectar. The pollen attracts all 

 tie visitors required. But bright colors and 

 odors are as valuable to pollen flowers as 

 to nectar flowers. 



I see no reason for changing my state- 

 ment that irregular flowers only "occasion- 

 ally" revert to the regular form. This is a 

 n'atter of common observatioiv The lark- 

 s' ur, violet, white clover, snapdragon, wis- 

 taria; sage, linaria, and several orchids are 

 some of the more common flowers which 

 have been known to revert to a regular or 

 wheel-shaped form; but no reader of 

 Gleanings has ever seen these flowei's 

 often become regular. Mr. Ryan appeals 

 to Mendel's law ; and after referring to 

 Mendel's crosses of the different varieties 

 of the garden pea, he adds : "Here, then, 

 the irregular form unmistakably (italics 

 Mr. Ryan's) reverted to ancestral stages 

 and produced regular forms" (quoted from 

 my paper in Gleanings, Jan. 15, p. 54). 

 Mr. Ryan is mistaken ; for in not a single 

 experiment of Mendel's in ci'ossing the 



varieties of the garden pea did the flowers 

 lose their pai^ilionaceous or irregular form 

 and become regular. I was so astonished 

 at Mr. Ryan's assertion, that I Avrote to one 

 of the first authorities on genetics in Amer- 

 ica and Europe, and inquired if he knew 

 of any facts on which such a statement 

 could be based. He replied: "I have read 

 carefully Mendel's original paper giving 

 the account of his work on varieties of the 

 garden' pea, and it contains no mention 

 whatever of the flowers having lost their 

 papilionaceous character." And he adds 

 that he never before heard such a thing 

 intimated. 



Cross-fertilization versus self-fertiliza- 

 tion is a most interesting question. I can 

 not agree that Darwin's dictum, that Na- 

 ture abhors perpetual self-fertilization, has 

 been "upset." It will be noticed that I 

 emphasize perpetual. Let us inquire first 

 whether cross-fertilization is beneficial or 

 not. Darwin shoAved conclusively that it is. 

 The offspring of crossing were larger in 

 size, grew more vigorously, bloomed a little 

 earlier, and yielded more seed. Since then 

 we find Dr. Fletcher saying in the A B C of 

 Bee Culture that endless observations have 

 confirmed the accuracy of Darwin's law. 

 The evil effects of constant interbreeding 

 are instinctively recognized, even by bar- 

 barous races. 



The latest authoritative word on this top- 

 ic is given by the President of the Carnegie 

 Institute of Washington in his annual re- 

 port. He says: "Another investigation 

 continued during the year, which involves 

 prime utilitarian application, is that of 

 Dr. ShuU on the effects of self-fertilization 

 in maize, or Indian corn. His earlier con- 

 clusions, published in 1908, have been eon- 

 firmed by his later studies. A striking 

 result from the latter is that, other condi- 

 tions being the same, the yield of cross- 

 fertilized plants proved fifty per cent great- 

 er than that of self-fertilized plants" (ital- 

 ics ours). Farmers! fruit-growers! Cross- 

 fertilization in plants is not only of benefit 

 to the plants, but it is of financial value to 

 you. A knowledge of this great principle 

 will put money in your pockets. 



Look over the plant world and see ho-wr 

 wide is the provision for cross-fertilization. 

 All the cone trees are cross-fertilized. In 

 all the species the eggs and sperms are 

 produced in different cones ; and where both 

 kinds of cones occur on the same tree, the 

 fruiting cones are in a position where they 

 are not likely to receive the pollen from 

 the staminate ones. Plow well the cone 

 trees have succeeded ! How vast are our 

 forests of pine, of fir, of spruce, and larch! 



