1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



539 



improved 

 near each 

 When we i 



stock. Plants remote of kin, but grown 

 other, when crossed gave inferior results. 

 )ass tlirougii the woods or {garden and the 



FIG. I. 



tions that caused unusual strain upon tlicir struc- 

 tures were tiiose tliat sucli savings and the conse- 

 quent reserve force benefited most. But tliis saving 

 of pollen introduced a necessity for some contriv- 

 ance to carry it in an economical manner from plant 

 to plant. The method chosen shows the perfection 

 of !iatural adjustment to a remarkable degree. 



Tlie pistils iind tlieir seed-beai'ing ovaries usually 

 occui)y the center, wliile the stamens, like a circle 

 of sentinels, stan 1 Kuard around them. This is 

 seen in the cotton flower. Fig. 3. In this A is the 

 pi-itil, B the stamens, and C the ovary. Their pro- 

 duction of pollen is also less, since tlie necessi ty to 

 sow every inch of the country that perchance a few 

 grains may strike the stigma (or top of the pistil) of 

 a kindred plant is now at an end. But how? The 

 bringing together of both organs in a single blossom 

 tends to self-fertilization, which has been shown to 

 injure them. A careful examination of these 

 flowers will reveal a most wonderful and almost 

 numberless set of contrivances evidently intended 

 to keep tlie pollen of the same blossom from reach- 

 ing its stigma. These are in all degrees of perfec- 

 tion, from those that allow of free contact to those 

 that exclude all possible contact. As they would all 

 most surely perisli witiiout fertilization, and as they 

 would slowly, but as certainly, deteriorate by self- 

 fertilization, their winged friends come to their 

 relief, and with th> gieater certainty the more en- 

 ticing their forms, fragrance, and color. On any 

 bright daj' of the summer months, in the forest, on 

 the prairie, or in the garden, insects can be seen at 

 work consummating these unions. Butterflies and 

 moths, hees and humming-birds, lingering around a 

 bed of flowers are iloing more than enjoying them- 



little dust-specks cling to our garments, how many 

 of us pause to consider that each impalpable parti- 

 cle we are so desirous of brushing away is a volume 

 containing more wonderful and more accurately 

 recorded facts than any man could write ? Viewed 

 with the microscope, traces of its Ipeauty appear in 

 every distinct form assumed. Each kind of plant 

 has a form for itself, and. though borne on the 

 passing winds miles away fi-om the producing an- 

 thers, every tiny speck is sufficiently distinct to 

 recognize its kind. In Fig. 2 is sliown this dust 

 from fifteen different kinds of plants, and surely no 

 one coukl. after familiarity, confound them. Here 

 is pollen from the lily (ai, buttercup (/n, hollyhcck 

 (c), ench.mters' nightshade (d), wild-balsam apple 

 (e), mountain laurel (/), bassella {a\ lark pine (h), 

 evening v)rimrose (i), chiccory (j), white pine (fc>, 

 musk plant (?), burr cucumber (m), passion flower 

 (71), and scolyraus I')). These external appearances 

 are. in their way, remarkable, but they shed no light 

 on a pollen grain's unfathomable potentiality. 



Every grain seems to be husbanded for the per- 

 petuation of the plant, or in some indirect manner 

 to aid that perpetuation. P"or a plant to squander 

 its life force in produeins: a superabundance of 

 pollen is to lesstn its resisting power against ad- 

 verse forces in some other direction. In the strug- 

 gle for life those survived best that were able to get 

 the largest number of healthy representatives with 

 a minimum of such expenditure. Every plant that 

 guined some contrivance to save its pollen from loss 

 became the parent of more vigorous offspring. 

 Iiittle changes that aided but slightly were multi- 

 plied through successive generations until great 

 changes were the result. Plants occupying posi- 



rio. 



selves with the fragrance and sipping the lioney 

 from the nectaries. The apparently trivial act of 

 one of these in seeking food is fraught with changes 



