CHAPTER XIII 



INSECTS AND FLOWERS 



All those who have lingered observantly in gardens or 

 country places must have noticed that flowers are much 

 frequented by insects, more especially by bees which 

 fly from the apiaries of the district. In popular parlance 

 bees are said to visit flowers in search of honey ; but this 

 is less than half the truth. What bees really gather is 

 the sweet juice, called nectar, which the plants secrete. 

 Now nectar belongs to the special group of sugars known 

 technically as " sucroses " or cane-sugars. The bee sucks 

 this nectar into its crop, whence it is regurgitated when 

 the insect returns to the hive. But in the short interval 

 the nectar becomes chemically changed by admixture 

 with peptic secretions. Its sweetness is converted from 

 cane-sugar into " glucose " or grape-sugar ; and not until 

 this change has taken place does it become " honey " in the 

 strict sense of the word. Again, bees do not frequent 

 flowers solely for the sake of nectar ; they go also to 

 gather pollen, which figures prominently in the regimen 

 of the hive. The bee collects pollen in the first instance 

 among the hairs of its body and legs, sometimes in- 

 cidentally, often by a deliberate process of w r allowing 

 among the stamens. The pollen is then raked from the 

 hairs by means of the " pollen combs " of the hind-legs 

 (see page 55), and packed upon the "pollen baskets" 

 or corbicula. Exactly how this packing is accomplished 

 is not definitely known ; but there is reason for thinking 

 that the bee, by crossing its legs, transfers the pollen from 



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