BEES IN RELATION TO FLOWERS. 257 



produce one perfect specimen of the fruit, from 100 

 to 300 separate fertilisations must be effected. 



In the raspberry and blackberry again, each drupel, 

 or little fleshy portion, of which very many make up 

 one so-called berry, has had its own stigma, which an 

 insect has visited ; and hence again, we understand 

 how it is that the flowers have been so largely 

 endowed with nectar, as to entice the bees most 

 freely to visit them. 



In apple and pear blossoms we have other instances 

 of the stigmas coming to maturity before the anthers ; 



FIG. 82. SECTION OF APPLE BLOOM. 



and, therefore, they require the intervention of bees 

 for their fertilisation. Peaches, apricots, nectarines, 

 plums, greengages, and, we might almost venture to 

 assert, all our choicest and most valuable fruits, are 

 dependent for their perfection upon the busy searchers 

 after honey ; and many a market-gardener would 

 greatly increase his chances of good crops of fruit, 

 were he to maintain a few stocks of bees in his 

 orchards, and allow access for the active workers to 

 his trees blossoming under glass-houses. 



S 



