390 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



see something liaving a more or less 

 orange tint. This orange color pro- 

 ceeds from the broad and membra- 

 nous prolon.^ations of the connectives. 

 I may remind some of you that the 

 connective is wliat might be called 

 the mid-rib of the antlier. It usually 

 terminates at the tip of the anther, 

 but it is sometimes produced beyond 

 it, as it is in this case, and very 

 strikingly so in Paris quadrifoKa. An 

 anther witli prolonged connective is 

 analogous to a leaf whose mid-rib is 

 produced beyond the blade. The 

 stamens of the pansy have very short 

 filaments — much shorter than their 

 antliers. The ovary is conical in form, 

 and the anthers are arranged com- 

 pletely round it, their dehiscing sides 

 inwards, facing the pistil. The pro- 

 longations of the connectives thus 

 take up a position near the upper part 

 of the ovary, their tips meeting at the 

 apex of the cone, but in such a way 

 as to inclose a hollow space, with the 

 ovary in the centre. Each of the two 

 lower or front stamens throws out 

 from the base of the connective a long 

 spur. These staminal spurs project 

 into the spur of the lower petal, and 

 penetrates its whole length. The 

 honey-glands are situated in the 

 somewhat thickened ends of the 

 staminal spurs, whence it drops to the 

 bottom of tlie spur of the corolla, 

 where it remains until sought for by 

 some insect whose trunk is long 

 enough to reach it. 



I will not weary you with these 

 structural details further than to 

 mention that the stigma, which seems 

 to guard the entrance to the honey- 

 chamber, is quite hollow, and has a 

 remarkable round opening in front. 

 Below this opening, and close in con- 

 tact with the petal, is a recurved lip 

 or valve. There is a bend at what 

 appears to he a weak partof the style, 

 liaving examined the flower thus 

 carefully, we are now in a position to 

 watch the eifect of a bee visiting the 

 pansy in search of honey. The insect 

 alights on tlie broad front petal, 

 thrusts its trunk under the stigma 

 and downwards to the bottom of the 

 spur of the corolla, where it can 

 either sip what has trickled into the 

 tube or take the honey directly from 

 the secreting glands of the staminal 

 spurs. jS'ow, observe what happens. 

 If the anthers are mature, or have 

 been so for a short time, the pollen 

 will, partly at least, have dropped 

 through the slits between the anthers 

 into the spur of the corolla, wliere it 

 will he caught by the thick brush of 

 liiiirs which seem to be placed there 

 for this special purpose. Tlie probos- 

 cis of the bee, on its way to the 

 honey, must i)ass completely through 

 this brush of hairs, and is sure to get 

 dusted over with pollen ; but, in with- 

 drawing itself from the tube, the in- 

 sect comes against the recurved lip of 

 the stigma, which is consequently 

 drawn forward and pressed across 

 the orifice, thus effectively preventing 

 any of the pollen from entering the 

 cavity. Should the bee visit the 

 flower just at the time when the an- 

 thers have ripened, but before the 

 pollen has been shed, then when it 

 touches the stigma, the style bends at 



the weak part, causing a movement 

 of the ovary. This movement dis- 

 turbs the encircling anthers ; the 

 hollow box opens, and the pollen, set 

 free by the agitation, drops upon the 

 bee, and is carried oil by it to the 

 next flower it alights upon. In fol- 

 lowing the bee to this other flower, 

 we will see that in thrusting its pro- 

 boscis beneath the stigma, it has to 

 pass the open orifice, against which it 

 must press with some degree of force. 

 The pollen which it has brought from 

 the first flower gets cleaned off its 

 trunk, some of which is almost cer- 

 tain to enter the hollow chamber, thus 

 securing cross-fertilization. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Hail— Bloom without Nectar. 



ALLEN PRINGLE. 



On May 18th ult. a violent hail storm 

 passed over this section, and all the 

 bees that were out were killed. As 

 the weather during the preceding 

 week had been unfavorable, confining 

 the bees to their hives the most of the 

 time, they came out freely that fatal 

 afternoon, the weather being fine. 

 The hail storm came suddenly, with- 

 out warning, and laid tlie busy work- 

 ers low in the dust. They could be 

 seen after the storm, scattered over 

 the fields close to the earth, dead ; 

 with their pellets of pollen still ad- 

 hering to them. Aside from consid- 

 erations of loss, the sight was one to 

 excite feelings of commiseration for 

 the industrious little heroes, and 

 Shakespeare's couplet was forcibly 

 suggested : 



" Blow, wind! come, wrack! 

 At least we'll die with harness on our back." 



The colonies which before this were 

 in fine condition, were all more or less 

 depleted ; and some of them with not 

 bees enough left to care for the brood 

 which was plentiful. This unfortu- 

 nate state of things necessitated a 

 general balancing of forces througli- 

 out the apiary, and some " doubling 

 up."' Had I not promptly attended to 

 this, the field loss, great as it was, 

 would in all probability have been 

 supplemented by a still greater loss 

 of brood— possibly ending in "foul 

 brood.'' 



Such untoward and unexpected exi- 

 gencies as these are the ones which 

 test the apiarist. He is thus put to 

 his " wits' ends," and at such times, 

 unless he has principles to fall back 

 upon, he will find himself at sea. 



But the hail storm was not all. 

 During two or three days of the past 

 week, it was freezing cold, with high 

 cold winds, and ice forming at nights. 

 And to complete the chapter of ad- 

 verse circumstances, the fruit bloom 

 has come, and is about over, but has 

 yielded no honey. This, to me, is 

 anomalous. So far, in all iny experi- 

 ence, I tiave never observed an abund- 



ant fruit bloom without nectar. I 

 have had to feed my bees all through 

 it, or they would undoubtedly have 

 starved. 



The absence of nectar in the bloom 

 is, no doubt, due principally to the 

 low temperature and the drying 

 winds of last week. In utter perver- 

 sity the weather this spring has been 

 the worthy counterpart of tliat of last 

 spring. 



Ever since the bees were put out 

 (about the middle of April), it has 

 been a continual conflict with ad- 

 verse (one would be pardoned for say- 

 ing ill-naturedly, perverse) natural 

 conditions. However, I suppose our 

 only salvation from these meteoro- 

 logical ills (and ddlls) is to bring 

 science and common-sense to bear, 

 resolutely meet them, and parry them. 



A part of niy bees were wintered 

 on their summer stands protected, 

 and part of them in the cellar. I lost 

 one of those whiih were outside, and 

 one of those inside, after they were 

 put out. All the others came tiirough 

 in excellent condition. 



The one outside starved, though it 

 had about 80 pounds of honey when I 

 prepared it for winter. I account for 

 the singular fact in this way • It was 

 so well prepared, and so snug under 

 the snow, and being one of the largest 

 and best colonies, it kept up breeding 

 all winter, until it had by March 1, 

 consumed all its stores. Its post-mor- 

 tem condition evidenced this. 



Xotwithstanding the very unfavor- 

 able spring, my bees are now in ex- 

 cellent condition, with the exception 

 of 2 or 3 colonies. But they have no 

 honey, nor are they gathering any to 

 speak of. I am still feeding them, 

 and will, no doubt, have to continue 

 it until the white-clover bloom ap- 

 pears. 



Many bees in this section died dur- 

 ing the winter and spring ; mostly, 

 however, among the old-fashioned, 

 non-scientific bee-keepers. One of 

 this class, a neighbor (he does not 

 take the Bee Journal), said to Mrs. 

 P. lately : " How is it that Mr. 

 Pringle's bees live through the winter 

 and spring and ours die V" The re- 

 ply was that it was probably owing to 

 the fact that the former knew how to 

 care for his bees. 



Now I do not suppose that the most 

 careful and scientific apiarist can 

 permanently escape winter and spring 

 losses ; but ' his average loss will be 

 small compared • with those of tlie 

 careless and blundering bee-keeper. 

 Bee-culture wants no sluggards or 

 dullards. But the losses and disap- 

 pointments consequent upon these 

 traits, will have at least one good ef- 

 fect ; viz., that of weeding out the 

 careless and incompetent from our 

 ranks. Not that the inevitable mis- 

 takes and losses of t)ie earnest be- 

 ginner determined to learn ought to 

 be condemned— by no means; but the 

 bee " dolt " who is too dull to compre- 

 hend scientific apiculture, or too neg- 

 ligent and careless to look after his 

 industrious little exemplars, ought tc 

 be -'weeded out ;"' and the Darvvinia 

 law of the "survival of the fittest 

 will assuredly do it. 



Selby, Ont., .June 2, 1884. 



