THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



377 



instances, the heads were seen to be 

 unopened wlien they were covered 

 with muslin or paper sacks. In tlie 

 last experiment as well as in the 

 others, perhaps the bees did not visit 

 all the flovrers. Insects, even in the 

 most favorable seasons, are not always 

 to be relied on to transfer pollen 

 enough to fertilize all the pistils. 



Prof. W. W. Tracy has found in 

 several seasons, where he lias raised 

 Hubbard squashes on a large scale, 

 that he increased his crop of fruit 

 quite largely by artificially transfer- 

 ring pollen with his own hand, every 

 day or two, during flowering. To see 

 how the uncovered heads of red clover 

 from different plants varied in tlie 

 number of seeds produced, I selected 

 fifty heads from live plants near each 

 other, where each had plenty of room. 

 This was the second crop of clover. 

 Fifty heads from each plant yielded 

 as follows: ],2f;0, 1,27-5, 1,460, 1,4S5, 

 1,820 seeds respectively. In another 

 place, fifty heads yielded 2,290 seeds, 

 or nearly twice as many as plant 

 number one in the lots just above 

 noticed. It is a fair conclusion that 

 bumble-bees are of considerable value 

 in fertilizing the flowers of red clover. 



Frnm t}ie British Bee Journu 



Visits of Insects to Flowers. 



Lecture by J. T. Powell, Esq. 



The lecturer showed what an im- 

 portant work was carried on by in- 

 sects in the fertilization of flowers. 

 The subject of the mutual relations 

 of insects and flowers was, he said, a 

 comijaratively newone,and it wasonly 

 within the last quarter of a century 

 that due attention had been given to 

 it. He explained, by means of dia- 

 grams, the structure of flowers, and 

 went on to deal with their fertiliza- 

 tion by means of pollen. Cross-ferti- 

 lization was effected in two ways, 

 either by the agency of the wind or 

 insects. Plants which were cross- 

 fertilized, as a rule, produced better 

 than those which were self-fertilized. 

 The relative position of the stamen 

 and pistil in some flowers rendered 

 self-fertilization impossible, and in 

 these cases if it were not for cross- 

 fertilization the species would die out. 

 Wind-fertilized flowers are usually 

 deficient in brightness ; those ferti- 

 lized by insects are generally brilliant. 

 Some were of the opinion that insects 

 had no sense of smell, but, however 

 that might be— and it was a subject 

 on which they knew very little— he, 

 for his part, believed that insects 

 were attracted by odors. The great 

 attraction which flowers had for in- 

 sects, was the sweet juice in the nec- 

 taries known as honey. 



The lecturer proceeded to show that 

 in passing from flower to flower the 

 insect conveyed pollen on its feet, and 

 this pollen was rubbed off. While 

 the bee or other insect was suiting 

 its own purpose by taking the honey, 

 it was also transferring the fertilizing 

 pollen. To female insects, particu- 

 larly bees, which were the chief 

 means of" conveying the pollen, the 

 pollen itself was an attraction, and 

 their instruments for brushing it up 



and carrying it away had often been 

 described. He explained the modus 

 operandi of bees in visiting certain 

 flowers, giving minute information as 

 to the tri'..nsference of the pollen. In 

 some instances, he showed that it 

 was necessary before fertilization 

 could take place, that the bee should 

 literally force itself into the flower. 

 Tliis was the case witli the snap- 

 dragon flower. In other cases not 

 only was the strength of the insect a 

 factor, but the weight also. He then 

 explained the construction of the 

 sweet pea, and showed that, but for 

 the weight of the bee having a me- 

 chanical effect in bearing down a por- 

 tion of the flower, fertilization could 

 not take place. Hive and humble- 

 bees were the usual visitors to the 

 leguminous family, and without the 

 intervention of the bees, we should 

 get no fruit from the kidney beans. 

 It had been found tbat, by "keeping 

 bees away from kidney beans, the 

 flowers did not set. 



Referring to the orchids in the dia- 

 grams, he said there were Is ways in 

 which they could be fertilized ; but 

 Darwin said there were only 6 ways 

 in which they could be fertilized with 

 advantage. "The fertilization of the 

 flowers of the orchid family would 

 always be associated with tlie name 

 of i)arwin. Night moths visited 

 some of the orchids, which could not 

 be fertilized except by insects with 

 very long tongues. The pollen-masses 

 stuck to theiu, and were thus con- 

 veyed to other flowers. Mr. Darwin 

 found a moth with a pollen-mass 

 sticking in its eye ; and an entomolo- 

 gist caught a moth at Dover and sent 

 it to him (the lecturer) with over 20 

 pollen-masses sticking to its tongue, 

 so that it must have beenpretty much 

 embarrrassed thereby, as it was not 

 able to coil its tongue up in the 

 usual manner. Garden sage some- 

 times produced flowers, which were 

 rather large, bright blue in color, and 

 thin-lipped. In this family the older 

 flowers were fertilized from the 

 younger ones. 



Mr. Powell then went on to show 

 that the constancy of insects is of 

 considerable importance in fertiliza- 

 tion, that was to say, whether they 

 stuck to the same sort of flowers in 

 the same journey. In the hot -July of 

 1881, he watched the insects at 

 Cromer, and one result of his investi- 

 gation was that bees, as a rule, were 

 very constant, and butterflies very 

 inconstant. The hive-bee was the 

 most constant of bees. He found 

 that sometiiues the inconstancy was 

 only seeming, as the bee would leave 

 a flower and go to another simply for 

 the purpose of moistening its throat, 

 and would then return. Some flowers 

 were entirely fertilized by nocturnal 

 moths, among them being the red 

 valerian. This flower was fertilized 

 by a moth with a tongue an inch and 

 a quarter long. Only a few British 

 flowers were adapted to fertilization 

 by wasps, which had short tongues. 

 All the flowers so fertilized were very 

 shallow and dull-colored, and the 

 wasps were left by other insects in 

 undisturbed possession of those which 

 they could conveniently visit. 



ror tlie Amcrlcun IJoe .loumaU 



Defending the Rights of Apiarists. 



(;. W. I3EMAltKK. 



The suit for damages against Mr. 

 S. I. Freeborn, of Ithaca, Wis., hav- 

 ing been made piiljlic, I wish to en- 

 doise Mr. Ileddon's suggestions as to 

 the propriety of organizing a mutual 

 defense society. IJut I see no neces- 

 sity of creating a " sinking f und " to 

 aid those whose rights may be as- 

 sailed. It will be suffi(;ient t;o have a 

 general manager who can act as sec- 

 retary and treasurer. And when a 

 bee-keeper needs support in making 

 defen.se of rights common to the bee- 

 keeping interest, a "call" can be 

 made on the members for the neces- 

 sary funds to meet the emergency. 

 Mr. T. G. Newman is the proper per- 

 son to hold the important position. 



If ]\Ir. Newman would indicate 

 through the columns of his paper, his 

 readiness to assume the leadership of 

 such organization, and would " open 

 books " for membership, I am sure 

 that he would meet with hearty re- 

 sponses. Of course it will be some 

 burden to Mr. Newman, but he has 

 already done a great deal of work for 

 the " glory of the thing," and doubt- 

 less can stand a little more. It is 

 proper here to say that it is natural 

 that a prudent person joining such 

 society would want to know the ex- 

 tent of his liability. 



I would suggest that each person, 

 when sending in his name, iudicate 

 what sum he would be willing to pay 

 at a single " call," say one or two dol- 

 lars, or any other sum, and when the 

 average is taken, let that be the 

 highest amount that any member 

 would be liable for at any one "call." 



I believe that it would have been 

 better to have kept this ridiculous 

 damage suit in the back grounds. If 

 it gets into the newspapers it may do 

 a worse work for the interest of bee- 

 culture than the " scientific pleas- 

 antry " of Prof. Wiley has inflicted. 

 The lirst impulse of the bee-keeper 

 would lie to look with contempt on 

 such a " plea " as the plaintiff in the 

 damage suit against Mr. Freeborn 

 must make, yea, and swear to, in or- 

 der to satisfy a court that he has a 

 "cause of action" against the de- 

 fendant. But the marvellous igno- 

 rance and stupidity that is abroad con- 

 cerning the habits and instincts of 

 the honey-bee makes the matter more 

 serious than funny. Think of sub- 

 mitting your rights as a bee-keeper, 

 to a man whose features become the 

 personification of aversion at the 

 sight of a honey-bee, and who will 

 strike most wickedly at a tired, in- 

 offensive bee that may chance to 

 light on his clothes I Would it be a 

 difficult matter to persuade such a 

 man that bees will pursue and sting 

 sheep in a pasture V 



The rights of bee-keepers oaght to, 

 and must be maintained right at the 

 start. We cannot afford to yield an 

 inch of ground. Once admit that 

 bees are likely to injure stock in the 

 fields, and that is the end of bee-cul- 

 ture. Let Mr. Freeborn fail to make 



