332 



gleani:ngs in bee cultuee. 



Oct. 



KAO-AVEED AXD CORN, SHOAVING THE TWO 

 KINDS OF BLOSSOMS ON ONE STALK. 



(Jn the ends of the tall racemes, as at B, 

 the pollen bearing blossoms are seen very 

 conspicuously, and many of you who are fa- 

 miliar with the weed, perhaps never imag- 

 ined that it had any other blossom at all ; if 

 so, will you please go out doors and take a 

 look at them again. Right close to the main 

 stem, where the branches all start out, you 

 will find a very pretty little tlower, only that 

 it possesses no color except green, and it is 

 here where all the seeds are borne, as you 

 will see on some of the branches where tliey 

 are matured. Xow, if you will get up early 

 in the morning, you will find that these 

 plants when shaken, give off a little cloud 

 of fine green dust, and this is the pollen of 

 the plant. Before I knew what it was, I used 

 to find it annoying on account of the way 

 in which it soiled light clothing. As this 

 plant is in no way dependent on the bees for 

 the fertilization of its blossoms, they con- 

 tain no honey, or at least 1 have never been 

 able to detect any ; although I have, diu'ing 

 two seasons, seen the bees quite busily en- 

 gaged gatliering the pollen. It is said that 

 corn sometimes bears honey as well as pol- 

 len, although I have never been able to get 

 proof of it. These two plants, as I have be- 

 fore remarked, seem to insure crossing the 

 seed with other jAants of the same variety, 

 by bearing tlie pollen-bearing flowers aloft, 

 on slender spines ; also by furnishing a 

 great preponderance in numbers, of these 

 l)lossoms, for precisely the same reason that 

 a thousand or more drones are reared to one 

 queen. A stalk that succeeds in pushing 

 itself above tlie others, and in bearing a pro- 

 fusion of pollen flowers, will probably be the 

 father, so to speak, of a multitude of the ri- 

 sing generation, and this process, repeated 



lor generations, would develop just the ten- 

 dency of corn and ragweed, to shoot up tall 

 spires, clothed with an exuberance of the 

 pollen bearing blossoms. As the plants that 

 give the greatest distance on the stalk be- 

 tween the lower, or seed blossoms, and tlie 

 upper ones, are most likely to shed the pol- 

 len on neighboring plants, this, too, fosters 

 the tendency mentioned. 



But what shall the great multitude of 

 plants do, tliat liave no tall spines witli 

 wiiich to shake their pollen to the breezes? 

 Here is where the bees come in, and fulfil 

 their allotted task, in the work of animal 

 and vegetable life. They would, it is true, 

 visit many plants for the pollen alone, but 

 with by far the greater part of them, tlie 

 pollen is only a secondary consideration, or 

 not sought for at all; in vieing witli each 

 other, or, in the strife to perpetuate their 

 species, what shall the plant do to offer the 

 greatest atti-action to the bees, to visit them, 

 and carry the precious pollen to the neigh- 

 boring blossoms, for the purpose we have 

 mentioned? Suppose we wish to gather a 

 group of school children aboi;t us, what will 

 be the surest and most effectual method of do- 

 ing it? Coax them with candy, maple sugar, 

 and the like, of course; and that is just what 

 the plant does; or it does still more, for it 

 ransacks its storehouse and, I dare say, 

 sends its roots abroad through the soil, with 

 untiring efforts, to steal a more delicious 

 and enticing nectar, more wonderfully ex- 

 quisite than even the purest and most trans- 

 parent maple sugar syrup ever distilled, or 

 "boiled bown," by the skill of man, for the 

 sole jiurpose of coaxing the bees to come and 

 dust themselves in their precious pollen, or 

 to bring from some other blossom, the pol- 

 len they have previously been dusted witli. 

 Now, this honey is precious, and it must tax 

 the plant to its utmost to produce it; nature, 

 therefore, who is a most careful economist, 

 not only deals it out in sma doses, but she 

 places it in the most cunning nooks and cor- 

 ners, that the bee may be obliged to twist 

 himself into all possible shapes, around and 

 among the stamens, until the pollen is most 

 surely dusted all over him. Observe, that 

 the flower secretes no lioney, until tlie pol- 

 len is ripe, and ready to do its work ; tliat 

 the honey slowly exudes into the nectaries, 

 that the bees may be kept coming and lick- 

 ing it out every hour in the day; and that 

 the flow of honey ceases, just as soon as the 

 pollen is ripened and gone. A lady has sug- 

 gested a beautiful experiment, to determine 



