214 NATURAL HISTORY OF 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 onthe 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 
4 stout styles, and it is 
Fic. 83. Diagram of a section of an apple blos- fenced round about by 
ee ee ne NR 2 eine seat 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 
