128 FOOD OF BEES. 



other plants, such as the Scrophularia Nodosa (Simpson 

 honey plant— Fig. 49), the female organs are ready for 

 fecundation earlier than the male. But as the flower secretes 

 a large quantity of honey, which is replaced in its nectaries 

 as fast as the bees gather it, the bees, in traveling from one 

 blossom to another, cany the pollen of an old blossom to the 

 pistil of a younger one, and fertilization is accomplished. 

 Some plants, corn, for instance, produce such quantities of 

 pollen, that the agency of msects is less indispensable to the 

 fertilization of their blossoms. 



270. To determine the advantages which flowers derive 

 from insect fertilization, any one can wrap a few flowers in 

 gauze, just before the opening of the bud, and compare the 

 number of fertile seeds, from flowers thus treated, with those 

 of other blossoms. 



We have heard farmers mention the fact that the first crop 

 of red clover furnishes but little seed, compared with the 

 second crop. This is because the bumble-bees, which help its 

 fertilization, are ver}^ scarce in Spring, while they are much 

 more plentiful in Summer. "In Australia it was found im- 

 possible to obtain seed from red clover until the bumble-bees 

 were imported into that country" (Darwin). 



A large fruit-grower told us that his cherries were a veiy 

 uncertain crop, a cold northeast storm frequently prevailing 

 when they were in blossom. He had noticed that, if the sun 

 shone only for a couple of hours, the bees secured him a crop. 



If those horticulturists, who regard the bee as an enemy 

 (871), could exterminate the race, they would act with as 

 little wisdom as those who attempt to banish from their inhos- 

 pitable premises every insectivorous bird, which helps itself to 

 a small part of the abundance it has aided in producing. By 

 making judicious efforts early in the Spring, to entrap tlie 

 mother-wasps and hornets, which alone survive the AVinter, 

 an effectual blow may be struck at some of the worst pests 

 of the orchard and garden. In Europe, those engaged ex- 

 tensively in the cultivation of fruit, often pay a small sum 

 in the Spring for all wasps and hornets destroyed in their 

 vicinity. 



