162 



ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 



them to attract insect-visitors, and to give pollen to the latter 

 and receive it from them. 



199. Pollen- Carrying Apparatus of Insects? — Ants and 

 many beetles which visit flowers have smooth bodies, to which 

 little pollen adheres, so that their visits are often of little 

 value to the flower, but many beetles, all butterflies and moths 

 and most bees have bodies roughened with scales or hairs so 

 as to hold a good deal of pollen entangled. In the common 

 honey-bee (and in many other kinds) the greater part of the 

 insect is hairy, and there are special collecting baskets, 

 formed by bristle-like hairs, on the hind-legs, ¥ig. 144. It is 



easy to see the load of 

 pollen accumulated in 

 these baskets, after such 

 a bee has visited several 

 flowers. Of course the 

 pollen which the bee 

 packs in the baskets and 

 carries off to the hive, to 

 be stored for food, is of 

 no use in fertilization. 

 In fact such pollen is in 

 one sense entirely wasted. 

 But since such bees as 

 have these collecting 

 baskets are the most in- 

 dustrious visitors to flow- 

 ers, they accomplish an 



immense share of the work of fertilization by means of the 



pollen-grains which stick to their hairy coats. 



200. Nectar and Nectaries. — Nectar is a sweet liquid 

 which flowers secrete for the purpose of attracting insects. 

 After partial digestion in the crop of the bee, nectar becomes 



^ See MuUer's Fertilization of Flowers, Part II. 



Fig. 144. — Right Hind-Leg of a Hoiiey-Bee. 



(Seen from behind and within.) 

 ti (below), the tibia seen from the outside, 



showing the collecting basket, formed of 



stiff hairs. 



