356 



FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 



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 (Fig. 249). It is easy 

 to see the load of pollen 

 accumulated in these bas- 

 kets 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 pollination. In fact such 

 pollen is in one sense entirely 

 wasted. But since such 

 bees as have these collect- 

 ing baskets are the most 

 industrious visitors to flowers, they accomplish an immense 

 share of the work of pollination by means of the pollen 

 grains which stick to their hairy coats and are then trans- 

 ferred to other flowers of the same kind next visited by 

 the bee. 



427. 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 honey. Those flowers which secrete nectar do 

 so by means of nectar glands, small organs whose structure 

 is something like that of the stigma, situated often near 

 the base of the flower, as shown in Fig. 250. Sometimes 

 the nectar clings in droplets to the surface of the nectar 

 glands ; sometimes it is stored in little cavities or pouches 



Pig. 249. 

 j4, right liind leg of a honey-bee (seen from 

 behind and within) ; B, the tibia, ti, 

 seen from the outside, showing the col- 

 lecting basket formed of stiff hairs. 



