THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



doubtedly many other wild fruits will be domesticated. Im- 

 proved varieties will be obtained of June-berries, elderberries, 

 wineberries, ground-cherries, cloudberries, native mulberries, 

 and many others. Hybridizing can multiply new forms inde- 

 finitely and yield such anomalies as the loganberry and the 

 blackberry-dewberry. 



To the list of our native fruits must be added apples, pears, 

 plums, oranges, and other citrous fruits brought from the Old 

 World. In California a beginning has been made in the cul- 

 ture of the fig, avocado, date, olive, and almond ; and on a small 

 scale the pomegranate, guava, loquat, and feijoa are being 

 tested. The mango, a delicious fruit of which there are more 

 than 500 varieties, has been introduced into Florida, in the 

 southern part of which there also flourish subtropical fruits like 

 the pineapple, banana, soursop, and cocoanut. American 

 fruit-growing has a wonderful future before it, and the time is 

 speedily coming when the present production, great as it is, 

 will seem small both in quantity and variety. It is impossible 

 to overestimate the importance of a knowledge of the pollina- 

 tion of fruit-bloom, and of determining whether the different 

 varieties are self-fertile, or in the absence of insects self-sterile 

 and unproductive. Without this knowledge their cultivation 

 must constantly be attended by disappointment and loss. 



The flowers of our common fruit-trees, the pear, apple, plum, 

 cherry, peach, and orange are rotate, or wheel-shaped, nectarif- 

 erous, and attractive to a large company of insects. On the 

 apple there have been collected 52 species, on the pear 50, and 

 on the sweet cherry 37, and insect visitors are equally numer- 

 ous to the bloom of most other fruit trees and shrubs. Bees 

 are most common, especially the honey-bee. Bumblebees are 

 more often found on the blossoms of the apple than on those 

 of the pear. There are a variety of flies of every size and a 



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