62 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 



crop of economic value, besides a harvest in late summer for bees. It 

 is also a fine ornamental tree. There are no finer shade or ornamental 

 trees for the lawn or roadside than lindens (basswoods) and horse-chest- 

 nuts. To these chestnut, locust, sourwood, and tulip trees may be 

 added. The timber of all is useful; and since they are great honey 

 yielders their propagation near the apiary is very desirable. 



Bees range ordinarily within 2 or 3 miles in all directions from their 

 homes, but sometimes go farther. Pasturage to be especially valuable, 

 however, should be within 2 miles, and less than a mile distant to 

 the main source is quite preferable. The advantage is probably not so 

 much in the saving of time in going back and forth, for bees fly with 

 great rapidity, but because when sudden storms arise, especially those 

 accompanied by high winds, the heavily laden bees are more likely to 

 reach home safely and the hive will not be decimated of its gathering 

 force. 



BEES AS CROSS-FERTILIZERS. 



Allusion has already been made in this bulletin to the importance of 

 bees in the complete cross fertilization of fruit blossoms and to the fact 

 that certain varieties of pears have been found to be completely self- 

 sterile, requiring, therefore, pollen from other varieties before they can 

 develop perfect seeds and fruits. It is interesting to study the ways 

 in which cross fertilization of plants is secured through the visits of 

 insects. The part that bees perform in the development and perpetua- 

 tion of numerous ornamental and economic plants is thereby clearly 

 shown. Space will only permit the introduction here of one or two 

 examples. The willow-herb, which is an abundant secreter of nectar 

 and thus attracts bees freely, illustrates one feature in pollination by 

 bees. A young blossom of this plant (fig. 44, A) shows the stamens 

 maturing and shedding their pollen, while the pistil remains curved 

 downward arid with closed stigmas. In the older flower (fig. 44, B), 

 the stamens having shed their pollen and begun to wither, the pistil 

 has straightened up and exposed its stigmatic surfaces for the recep- 

 tion of the pollen which a bee chancing to come from a younger blossom 

 is likely to bring. Self-pollination is thus positively prevented and 

 cross fertilization is insured. 



In the mountain laurel the anthers are held securely by little pockets 

 in the corolla, so that as the flower opens the stamens are found bent 

 over (fig. 50, B) ready to be liberated (fig. 50, C) by the visit of a bee. 

 When the stamen flies up the pollen is discharged from the anther and 

 dusted on the underside of the bee. The latter as it alights on the 

 next flower naturally touches the stigma first and rubs off some of the 

 pollen it has brought from the last flower visited. It then proceeds to 

 secure the nectar of the flower on which it has just alighted, and in 

 doing this liberates the stamens of this flower and gets dusted again 

 with pollen, which it carries to the next flower. 



The cross section of an imperfectly developed apple shown herewith 

 (fig. 51, B) illustrates the importance of complete fertilization of fruit 



