68 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



much modified, as this one is, takes especial pains — uncon- 

 sciously, of course, to attract the bee. The bee flies to this 

 blossom, alights on the wings and another part is lifted up and 

 touches the bee on the breast. The bee in leaving this blossom 

 gets the pollen. Thus we have cross pollenization in the 

 kitchen pea, and without that we should find the seed of the 

 kitchen pea would deteriorate. 



Here we have another plant which is most interesting. It 

 is so constructed that, when the bee lights on the flower a por- 

 tion is made to come down and strike the bee on the back, 

 thus scattering pollen grains all over the back of the bee. Now 

 when that bee visits another flower later in the season it finds 

 the female part developed and what happens is that the dust 

 covered part of the bee comes in contact with the female part 

 of the flower and the flower is cross-fertilized. There you 

 have a flower so developed that the weight of the bee figures 

 in cross-fertilization. 



Here we have a still more interesting condition of things, 

 and it was this plant, one of the orchids, which Darwin studied 

 so much. He found that when the bee alighted it touched 

 a spring which let loose the pollen baskets, and they stuck 

 fast to the head of the bee. First they stood upright, then they 

 bent over a little as they hung fast to the head of the bee, 

 later they bent over so that they hung at right angles to the 

 head of the bee. Now the bee visits another flower. What is 

 the first thing to happen? As he visits another flower this 

 bunch of pollen which sticks out touches the female part of 

 the flower and you have cross-fertilization. It seems to me 

 ihat a thing like that proves beyond question that the plants 

 have evolved or developed or grown along with the insects and 

 that the one cannot do without the other. The bee visits the 

 plant for nectar, for food, for pollen. The plant must have the 

 visit of the bee in order to be cross-fertilized. 



Here we have a picture of bee hives as they keep them in 

 New Mexico. We see that they have an orchid also, and it 

 is also a fact that they grow a kind of clover. These three 

 things go hand in hand, one depending on the other. The 

 orchid is cross-fertilized by the bees, and so is the clover. The 

 bees get nectar and pollen from the blossom. 



