14 PLEASURABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



the cause of falling in every case but eight was trace- 

 able to imperfect fertilisation. These fruits may be 

 generally known by a deformity — one part has failed to 

 grow because there has been no diversion of nutrition 

 towards it. Cutting it across with a knife, we find its 

 hoUow cheek lies opposite the unfertilised dissepiment." 

 The American poet Bryant, who was a keen ob- 

 server of Nature and her work, says in " The Planting 

 of the Apple Tree " : 



" What plant we in this apple tree ? 

 Sweets for a hundred flowery springs, 

 To load the May-windsf restless wings ; 

 When from the orchard now he pours 

 Its fragrance at our open doors 

 A world of blossom for the bee." 



The effect of the introduction of the bumble-bee 

 into New Zealand forms the most convincing proof of 

 the importance of insects as fertilisers of bloom. 

 Previous to 1881, when the first attempt to introduce 

 these bees to the colony was made, though crops of red- 

 clover were grown, no seed was produced. In Decem- 

 ber, 1883, and January, 1884, 55 bumble-bees packed in 

 dry moss were sent to New Zealand, but all died. In 

 the autumn of 1884 special precautions were taken in 

 the packing of 282 shipped in November and 260 in 

 December, and they were liberated near Christchurch 

 in January and February, 1885. The following year 

 Mr. S. C. Farr, Hon. Sec. of the Acclimatisation 

 Society of Christchurch, writing of these bees, says 

 their number is legion, and they abound over a radius 

 of one hundred miles from Christchurch. In several 



