116 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



Fig. 2. — Lady' 



of small grapes. Bees visit the little 

 bells of the lily-of-the-valley for pol- 

 len only. Asparagus is a good honey- 

 plant and the inverted green flowers 

 yield nectar freely; it is extensively 

 cultivated in America and grows 

 wild so abundantly on the Russian 

 steppes that the cattle feed upon it 

 like grass. The lilies are chiefly pol- 

 linated by butterflies. In the lib 

 family the bee-flowers differ from the 

 other forms chiefly in their pendu- 

 lous position and longer and partly 

 closed corolla. 



But in the orchis family we meet 

 with a number of bumblebee flowers, 

 as the snowy orchis Pogonia and Are- 

 tlmsa, which are brilliantly colored 

 and very irregular in form. This is 

 a family of marvels, with an endless 

 variety of bizarre forms, in some in- 

 stances mimicking bees, flies and 

 birds; one spi itasctum), pro- 



duces three flowers so unlike that 

 when they were first brought to Eu- 

 rope they were described as belong- 

 ing to three different genera. Imag- 

 ine, then, the consternation of the 

 botanical species-maker when Sir 

 Ralph Schomburgh declared that lie 

 had seen all three flowers growing 

 on one plant. A typical orchis 

 flower consists of 15 organs, hut usu- 

 ally they are so modified and united 

 that only 7 or 8 can be discovered. 

 Unlike the Compositae, the individual 

 flowei is very highly specialized, the 

 nectar i^ deeply concealed (an < n chid 

 from Madagascar has a 

 inches long), and visitors are few 

 both in kind and number \l 

 the flowers fail to set seed, some- 

 times not one in a thousand, and 

 much of the seed proves sterile. The 



are rare and do not su 



well in competition with hardy 



plants. The orchis family is far less 



successful than the Compositae, and 

 we are fi treed I ncludc that elab- 

 orate modification and adaptation to 

 ,! few i ipt to pi ove a dis- 

 advantage. ies none 

 of them are good honey plant -. 

 vanilla bean, is oi 

 mic import. i 

 The lady's slip]- dium 0C- 

 » 

 flower. Small bee nus An- 

 drena entei ' • " the 



two front elastic folds, which imme- 

 diately close again after it. The 

 trapped bees make their 

 through one of the two small holes 

 at the base of the Mower, coining first 

 in contact with the stigma and then 

 rubbing from the anther pollen which 

 is carried to the next flower visited. 

 ill- 2.) 



In the American Bee Journal for 

 August, 1917, brief descriptions were 

 given of the columbine, monkshood 

 and bee-larkspur, bumblebee-flowers 

 frequently cultivated in gardens. 

 Other peculiar shaped bee-flowers are 

 the Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra), 

 bleeding heart, climbing fumitory, the 

 pale Corydalis, the jewelweed, and 

 the blue violet. The object ol 

 odd forms, so fat' as they are not an 

 incidental result, is to compel the bee 

 to pursue a fixed path to the nectar, 

 so that pollination may be effected 

 with greater certainty, e. g., in the 



— ml. I Lean. A bee-flo 

 damp thickets 



violet the bee is compelled to come 

 in contact first with the stigma and 

 then u.ith tlii- pollen, since it must 

 run its tongue through the Com ol 

 anthers in the centei ol the flower in 

 order to obtain the nectar. Many bee- 

 flow el-, li pendent on the vis- 

 its ol tin: bees that in their al 

 they fail to produce seed, as red ami 

 white clover, Salvia and larkspur. 



\ - ei s •■ emarkable bee-flowei from 



li , the seed • if u hich llla\ he 



obtained from any florist, is the 

 fennel-flower, or ragged lady, or. as 



it is sometimes called from its finely 



i foliage, love-in-the-mist 



I he eight petals 



rmed into nectaries, and 



in each i me t here is a little 1" >w 1 i <t 



. a . ii - co\ end vi ith an elastic lid 



Bi i arc' the only insei i - cle^ er 



i in iugh to lift this lid and suck the 



ami when they go away it 



again falls into place. Clearly in the 



abseni • lowei would 



never have beet evol ed, and clearly, 



too, bei an thi most skillful of .ill 



i visitors. 



are almoi t entirely 

 absi from thi rosi fan ily, but 



there is one that well deserves our 

 gratitude — the raspberry. The black- 

 berries, the plums, the cherries, the 

 thornbushes, are not bee-flowers, but 

 the raspberry is a true bee-flower, 

 although it is also visited by other 

 insects. The flowers are inverted, 

 and the petals stand erect, crowding 

 the stamens against the cme of pis- 

 tils in the center; the nectar is se- 

 creted by a ring between them Bees 

 can cling to tin under side of the 

 flower and reach the partiallj con- 

 cealed nectar better than other in- 

 sects. Perhaps the reason the black- 

 berry^ yields much less nectar than 

 the raspberry is because it is not a 

 bee-flower. 



The various steps by which a tubu- 

 lar bee-flower may he evolved are 

 well illustrated by the currants and ■ 

 gooseberries, shrubs familiar to every 

 farmer. The petals are small and 

 scale-like, and it is the sepals which 

 are chiefly employed in shutting out 

 other insects. The common red cur- 

 rant has greenish nearly flat flowers, 

 the broad sepals open widely and the 

 nectar can be readily gathered by 

 man} insects. But in the Eui opi an 

 gooseberry (Ribes Crossularia) the 

 blossoms are little hanging bells with 

 the entrance narrowed and partly 

 closed by a fringe of hairs. Flies 

 cannot obtain much of the nectar. 

 The black currant (R. nigrum) has 

 still deeper bells. Honeybees not 

 only gather nectar from the flowers, 

 but also in their haste open the buds 

 Slightly different stages are shown 

 by many other species; but in the 

 golden currant (R. aurcum) the calyx 

 is cylindrical, nearly half an inch 

 long and the only visitors are bees. 

 The bright golden flowers change 

 with age to a deep red. a color 

 change which easily distinguishes the 

 older flowers which have been pol- 

 linated and have ceased to secrete 

 nectar. Nature often speaks in enig- 

 mas, but at times she is a very pa- 

 tient teacher, revealing her methods 

 step by step, if we will only take the 

 trouble to observe them, lint man- 

 kind is too often typified by the man 



