The Canadian Horticulturist. , 141 



wonderful lot of berries. The same can be said of Miami and Viola. These 

 three have the finest roots on strawberries we ever saw {Adi. Farmer and 

 Hort.) 



Which is the coming strawberry ? asks the Prairie Farmer. We have 

 columns of reports and there is great uninanimity in placing the varieties 

 as follows: 



jfessie, Eureka, Mrs. Cleveland, Bubach's No. j, Warjield No. 2, Haver- 

 land, Gandy ; these, as reported from Kansas to Canada and from Missouri 

 to Ohio, accord in the main with this verdict. These are the berries for 

 the grower and the shipper. 



Gratiton, Out., February, 1890. JOHN LITTLE. 



THE RELATION OF BEES TO FLOWERS AND FRUIT.— HI. 



BEES are at once florists, hybridists and fruit producers. The value of 

 their work may be measured by the food value of fruit to man. Let 

 us glance at her work in the production of apples, which from a utili- 

 tarian point of view, has no equal among the fruits of this country. The 

 better to understand the part she plays in their production, we must look 

 at the flower. It has a calyx with five lobes ; this calyx, when developed, 

 constitutes the edible part of the apple. It has a corolla with five spread- 

 ing petals. The flower is hermaphrodite, but incapable of fertilizing itself, 

 from the fact that its stigma matures before the anthers. The ovary is 

 inferior and generally presents five cells, with two ovules, which are 

 arrested in development at a very early stage. These cells correspond to 

 the five lobes of the calyx. The apple is, strictly speaking, a fusion of five 

 fruits into one, and demands five distinct fertilizations to make it perfect. 

 The wind doubtless assists in the work of fertilization. So may the moth 

 and other winged creatures, to a limited extent ; but the major part of the 

 work devolves upon the bee, which, while flitting from one flower to another, 

 gets dusted completely with pollen, the granules of which are transferred to 

 neighboring blossoms. If three or four only of the five stigmas, get pollen 

 dusted (which is often the case) we will have an imperfect fruit, for nature 

 refuses to do unnecessary work, and will not build up the lobes lying oppo- 

 site the unimpregnated stigmas. That side of the apple, only, which lies 

 opposite the fertilized stigmas will develop and we will have a fruit with a 

 flat or hollow cheek. The vitality of such apples is not as great, nor their 

 hold upon the parent tree as firm as those fully fertilized ; the result is, 

 they rarely withstand a moderate breeze. A moderately disturbing cause 

 will detach them from their stems, and they fall to the ground before they 

 are ripe. This may be proved by picking up a basketful of windfalls in the 



