214 



NATURAL HISTORY OP THE FARM 



proboscis and thrusts its tip downward between the bases of 

 the stamens into the nectar dish, lapping up what she can 

 reach. Then she raises her head and pushes her body 

 through and over the central clump of stamens and style tips, 

 and makes another downward thrust on the other side. In 

 doing this, she brushes roughly against bursting anthers, 

 filling the hairy coat of her body and legs with pollen; and 

 she rubs stigmas, also, depositing pollen upon their moist 

 tips. 



Figure 83 shows 

 where the nectar is, 

 and explains these 

 movements of the bees. 

 The nectar is in a basin, 

 out of the center of 

 which arise the five 

 stout styles, and it is 

 fenced round about by 

 a close-set palisade of 

 stamens. It can be 

 reached only from above. It cannot all be reached from any 

 one position (hence the successive thrusts of the bee into the 

 flower). Owing to the close crowding of the stamens and 

 pistils, it can only be reached by a slender proboscis. This 

 feast is not to be wasted on any wandering insect that may 

 come along; it is reserved for those that are endowed with 

 suitable nectar-gathering apparatus. 



A little burrowing bee, Halictus by name, descends upon 

 the flower and goes tip-toeing upon the top of the stamen 

 cluster. She has a short proboscis that is quite unequal to 

 reaching down to the nectar-cup : so she gathers pollen and 

 in trampling about over the anthers tramples the stigmas as 

 well and deposits pollen on them. A little green-and-gold 

 bee, Augochlora by name, of size intermediate between 



Fig. 83. Diagram of a section of an apple blos- 

 som, j, sepal; k, petal; i, anthers; m, stigmas; 

 n, nectar. 



