THE- BEE AND THE LUPINE 59 



of any kind. When a wasp or other insect has broken the skin 

 of a frnit the bee may suck the juices from the wound. Worse 

 than this she never does. When fruit is cut and put upon the 

 trays the bees annoy by visiting it and sucking up the juices 

 while it is still moist. But they do not bite into it and they cease 

 their visits when it is too dry to furnish juices. The bee being 

 such an important instrument in forming the fruit ought to have 

 some consideration in its final disposal. Many orchardists recog- 

 nize the importance of bees in their success and provide bees to 

 fertilize the flowers of their trees so that an abundance of fruit may 

 set. All of the melon family — watermelons, muskmelons, squashes, 

 cucumbers and pumpkins — depend wholly on insects for ferti- 

 lization, since the stamens and pistils are borne in separate flowers. 

 Those who, in the eastern Stales, raise cucumbers for the 

 market very early in the Spring in greenhouses, have had 

 to put bees into the greenhouses, or make the rounds of the flowers 

 themselves and dust the stigmas with pollen. Where melons have 

 been raised on a large scale in a country where bees are not common, 

 the melon producers keep large numbers of colonies of bees. Buck- 

 wheat depends upon bees. All have heard that, when red 

 clover was introduced into Australia, it was found necessary to 

 introduce bumble-bees also, to raise seed from the clover. Honey 

 bees' tongues are too short to reach the nectar in the red clover, 

 but in most other clovers they find it well enough, the white 

 clover and alfalfa being noted honey plants in the regions 

 in which they flourish. 



