268 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE. 



are of common occurrence, more especially with apples and pears. 

 This is caused by imperfect pollenisation. It is clearly observable 

 in the accompanying diagram: a section of an apple showing the 

 five sections of the ovary, with four of the ovules of seeds, marked 

 f, perfectly fertilised, and on the sides of the fruit, where the 

 seeds are so fertilised, it is perfect in form. The unfertilised seed 

 in the ovary, marked u, has caused the deformation in the fruit. 

 If, in four out of the five sections seen in the ovary of apples 

 and pears, the seeds therein are perfectly fertilised, the fruit is 

 likely to develop, although it will be a deformity ; but if only three 

 be so fertilised the fruit seldom comes to perfection. The light 

 seeds, those without kernels, that are frequently met with in pump- 

 kins and other members of that family, are caused in a similar 

 way — i.e., by the bees being prevented by some cause from supply- 

 ing a sufficiency of pollen to do the whole work necessary in re- 

 production. 



The matrimonial ceremonies — how t.hey marry and are given 

 in marriage — is the portion of the subject I here wish to deal 

 with. The arrangements of the sexual reproductive organs and their 

 various functions have already been dealt with. 



There is nothing more interesting in the life-history of the 

 vegetable kingdom than the methods and agencies of its repro- 

 duction. Fascinating as it is, it is too often the stumbling-block 

 of amateurs, whose love of plant-life carries them to look into the 

 deeply-hidden mysteries of this absorbing subject. The sexuality 

 known to exist in blossoms, their matrimonial instincts, their 

 marriage ceremonies, their domestic ties, their methods of raising 

 and perpetuating their families and co-relations, the officiating 

 and conjugating priests, and the agreement between the contract- 

 ing parties, are all more or less like fairy tales than actual facts. 



Let us enter into one of the temples of Nature and have a 

 look at the matrimonial instincts of plant life. How their cere- 

 monies are conducted ; how species and families of plants live and 



