2 THE BOOK OF THE HONEY BEE 



grains of which, constituting the fertilising material, 

 require to be conveyed to the pistil or female element, 

 before fruit can be produced. 



Every gardener knows the value of shaking, say a 

 vine or tomato plant, when in flower in order to " set " 

 the fruit, and doubtless both wind and rain to a certain 

 limited extent act in a similar manner, yet the generality 

 of fruit blossoms, although hermaphrodite, are as a rule 

 incapable of self-fertilisation. Some plants such as the 

 cucumber, vegetable marrow, etc., produce distinctive 

 male and female blossoms, and apart from troublesome 

 artificial means such flowers can only be fertilised by 

 insect agency. 



In the case of such plants as the raspberry, black- 

 berry, strawberry and allied fruits, each ovule or seed 

 requires a separate fertilisation, and it has been com- 

 puted that a perfect strawberry represents from one to 

 three hundred fertilisations. 



Bees when foraging for the sweets secreted by the 

 nectaries carry pollen from flower to flower, thus ensur- 

 ing the necessary fertilisation of the blooms, totally 

 unconscious of the important part they are playing in 

 the economy of nature. 



Bees use pollen in considerable quantity in the spring- 

 time for the preparation of brood food, which pollen 

 they convey to their hives in the form of little pellets, 

 snugly stored in the pollen-baskets with which their 

 hind legs are furnished ; and although pollen varies in 

 colour according to the source from which it is obtained, 

 it is interesting to notice that the two hind legs of a 

 pollen-laden bee are invariably of the same colour, 

 showing that a bee during one journey gathers pollen 

 solely from blossoms of one species. 



Whilst the bees are thus contributing so much to the 

 success of our fruit-crops, they are at the same time 

 harvesting another store of riches in the shape of surplus 



