8 Bee-keeping for Beginners. 



compensated by the great aid which the bees afford 

 the fruit-grower in the great work of cross-fertiliza- 

 tion, which is imperatively necessary to his success. 

 It is true that cross-fertilization of the flowers, which 

 can only be accomplished by insects, and early in the 

 season by the honey-bee, is often, if not always, 

 necessary to a full yield of fruit and vegetables. In 

 dioecious plants, like the willows and most nut-bearing 

 trees, the stamens that bear the pollen, or male 

 element, are on one plant or flower, and the pistils 

 that grow the ovules — the female element — on 

 another. Here, then, as Cook says, the insects must 

 act as ' ' marriage priests, " that fructification may be 

 accomplished at all. In other plants, where the 

 organs are all in the same flower, fertilization is 

 wholly dependent on insects, of which bees are chief 

 and foremost. The pollen grains must reach the 

 stigma. Often this is, from the very structure of the 

 flower, entirely dependent upon insects. In some 

 flowers the pollen and stigma are not ripe sirnultane- 

 ously, and so pollen must be brought from one flower 

 to the stigma of another, and this can only be done 

 by insects. People who are not afraid of bees have 

 often placed hives here and there amongst currant and 

 gooseberry bushes, and it has invariably been found 

 that the bushes nearest to the hives have borne the 

 finest fruit as well as the greatest quantity. I do not 

 practise this myself, as I think that bees should be 

 kept together in a part of the garden not generally 



