696 



TH© SMEKICMIf ®BB J@^KI«S:iL. 



BEES AND FRUIT. 



The Fertilization of Plants by 

 Bees. 



Report of U.S.Departmenit of Agriculture 



BY SAMUEL CDSHMAN. 



We do not hesitate to claim tliat the 

 honey and wax crop is not the most 

 valuable result of bee-keeping, but that 

 the principal value of bees to man is 

 their work of carrying jiollen from 

 flower to flower. 



That they do this is generally over- 

 looked, or the fact when known is 

 undervalued. 



Naturalists tell us that honey is Na- 

 ture's bait by which bees are induced to 

 take and distribute the fertilizing ma- 

 terial. While pollen is distributed 

 among certain blossoms by both in- 

 sects and the wind, others are so 

 shaped as to be wholly dependent up- 

 on the visits of bees. 



" The bee takes to give honey but a 

 fraction of her labors. Man has timely 

 help that he knows not of." 



INSECTS AND PLANT FERTILIZATION. 



(Introduction by the editor of the 

 American Agriculturist, to six articles 

 on the above subject, which com- 

 menced in that publication, May ISGb.) 



'•The part played by insects in the 

 fertilization of flowers, i. e., in the 

 carrying of the pollen, or fertilizing 

 dust from the anther which produces 

 it to the stigma or that part of the 

 pistil designed to receive it, is a sub- 

 ject now receiving much attention at 

 the hands of naturalists. 



'■It not onlyaSbrds an interesting 

 study to the curious observer, but the 

 fact itself is of importance to the culti- 

 vator, as some of our products depend 

 upon the aid of insects for their per- 

 fection, and probably the fruitfulnesa of 

 many of them is largely influenced by 

 the abundance or scarcity of bees and 

 other honey and jmllcn seekers. Prof. 

 Gray, of Harvard University, the dis- 

 tinguished botanist, has consented to 

 give us, in a series of articles, his ob- 

 servation upon the relation of insects 

 to plants." 



We quote from Prof. Gray's articles: 



" This sweet matter which flowers 

 so generously produce is, so far as we 

 know, of no direct use to the plant. 

 That insects, in visiting flowers for 

 honey, accidentally or incidentally aid 

 in fertilization, by carrying pollen 

 from anther to stigma, is familiarly 

 understood," 



"We cannot resist the conclusion 

 that the aid of insects is. so to say. 

 counted upon, that the blossoms are 

 furnished with lioney in order that 

 they may attract insects." 



"Why should insects be called in to 

 do that which, by a little diflferent ar- 



rangement, would be done by the 

 flower itself ?" 



• ' The key to the solution of the rid- 

 dle he (Charles Darwin) found in the 

 principle, recognized by breeders, that 

 close breeding tended to sterility and 

 debility, while cross breeding among 

 difierent individuals of the same 

 species avoids this tendency." 



" A bee cannot take the honey from 

 an Iris flower without carrying oft' on 

 its rough head some pollen from the 

 anthers it must rub against. It can- 

 not well take the honey from the next 

 flower of the sort it flies to without 

 depositing some of this pollen on the 

 stigma as it seeks its feeding place." 

 Speaking of orchids, he says: "To 

 cross the flower of the species is plainly 

 the object of the whole contrivance, 

 and an admirable contrivance it is, bj' 

 which winged insects are solicited to 

 do the work for sedentary flowers. 



" Most of our common, brightly col- 

 ored blossoms, and manj- that are not 

 at all showy, plainly reveal on inspec- 

 tion their adaptation to cross fertiliza- 

 tion by the aid of insects." 



"We need not multiply examples. 

 Every garden and every field ofi'ers 

 equally good examples — lessons which 

 anybody may read and understand if 

 he will only open his eyes." 



"Are all flowers then, it may be 

 asked, aided by insects in the essential 

 business of forming seeds ? By no 

 means. In many eases the transport of 

 pollen is left to the winds. Such flowers 

 produce no honej-, nor anything at- 

 tractive to insects, and such flowers, 

 we may add, have no showy corolla. 

 So we may conclude that corollas, or 

 bright colors in any part of the blos- 

 som, and also fragrance, are given to 

 plants in order that they may attract 

 insects, and be aided by them ; an aid 

 which many of them are absolutely 

 dependent on." 



"Pines, spruces and the like, are 

 left to the wind to fertilize." 



"Grasses and grains also depend 

 upon the wind, and have accoi-dingly 

 a vast excess of pollen." 



"No plant is known in which at 

 least an occasional cross-breeding is 

 not provided for.". . , , "The pollen is 

 powerless, or nearly so, upon the 

 stigma of the same flower, but is effi- 

 cient upon the stigma of neighboring 

 flowers ; and that breeding in and in, 

 which seemed unavoidable from the 

 structure of the blossom, is here pre- 

 vented only by the difi"erentiation of 

 the pollen and stigma." 



The following is from Silliman's 

 Journal. 1862 : ' • We all know how 

 essential plants, and especially their 

 flowers, are to the existence of the 

 multitudinous swarms and tribes of 

 insects, but it is hardly understood 

 that tlie benefit is reciprocal — that in 



the long run, insects are also essential 

 to the continued existence of many, if 

 not of most species." — Prof. Asa Qray. 



" In by far the greater number of 

 flowering plants we find both the male 

 and female element in the same flower, 

 or, in other words, such plants are 

 hermaphrodites. One would naturally 

 suppose that there could be but one 

 object in thus placing the sexual ele- 

 ments in such immediate juxtaposition, 

 namely, that each pistil might be fer- 

 tilized by its own pollen or male ele- 

 ment. Late researches have, how- 

 ever, made it evident that often among 

 plants, the nuptials cannot be cele- 

 brated without the intervention of a 

 third part}', to act as a marriage priest; 

 and tliat the oflice of this third party 

 is to unite the representatives of dif- 

 ferent households. To be specific, 

 seed capsules are most productive 

 when their ovules are fertilized by pol- 

 len from another plant or flower of 

 the same plant. Breeding in and in 

 can by absolute experiment, be proven 

 to produce a degenerate oft'spring in 

 the vegetable kingdom no less than in 

 the human race. Now the marriage 

 priests who officiate are insects in 

 search of honey, the winds, or any- 

 thing which by accident or design 

 may carry the pollen from one flower 

 to another." — J. F. Rothbeck, American 

 Naturalist. 1868. 



"Mr. Charles Darwin and other 

 botanists have proved beyond a doubt, 

 that some flowers, in which pollen 

 may easily gain access to the stigma of 

 the same flower, are sterile unless fer- 

 tilized by pollen borne from other 

 flowers, while many are much more 

 productive by a cross fertilization. 



"Bees ai'e willing agents here, as In 

 other instances, alighting first on the 

 stigma of the oldest flowers, which are 

 farthest down the stem, and then 

 passing up to others which are younger. 

 Besides collecting nectar at the bottom 

 of the flower, they collect the pollen 

 by scraping the style upon each side 

 with their legs, and wheu calling at 

 the next flower, first strike the ex- 

 posed stigma, leaving a few little mor- 

 sels as tribute for the bountiful sup- 

 ply." — W. J. Beal. on ''Agency of In- 

 sects in Fertilizing Plants, " American 

 Naturalist. 1868. 



' ' THE GREAT IMPROVEMENT OF THE 

 STRAWBERRY 



has been brought about by cross-ferti- 

 lization and selection of the best of 

 each kind. Nature apparently is not 

 willing to develop a luscious receptacle 

 or berry unless she in turn can use it 

 as a i-esting place for seeds." — Minne- 

 sota Experiment Station Bulletin. 



• ' Orchards in which bee-hives are 

 placed bear heavier crops than those 

 not thus favoi-ed. Bees are in Europe 



