318 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



effective? How is their material transferred to the 

 surfaces of the stigmas ; for will not the next flower 

 visited have these masses thrust forward towards 

 its own anther pouches ? Such would be the case 

 with the visits immediately succeeding the first. 

 Watching our pencil point, or the head of the bee, the 

 pollinia, at first erect on their caudicles {po, E), and 

 firmly secured by the drying of the viscid globes, begin 

 to incline forwards, and continue to move, always in 

 one direction (towards the pencil point), until they have 

 swept through an arc of about 90 , finally standing 

 as at po, G ; the movement occupying about thirty 

 seconds on an average. Re-inserting our pencil, 

 or our bee making another visit, will now secure 

 fertilisation, because the pollinia immediately strike 

 the stigmatic faces (st, C), as we see actually 

 being done at po, B. How perfect the adaptation ! 

 But where lies the secret of the movement executed? 

 The little viscid disc (vd, D) is endued with a power of 

 unequal contraction, and produces the required change 

 in position, the time occupied by it permitting the bee 

 to get from one plant to another, so that the best form 

 of crossing is secured. And yet another adaptation 

 demands attention. The pollinium is very coherent ; 

 but the elastic threads holding it together in packets 

 (H) break with the energy the insect can exert, so 

 that some pollen is left, and yet a mass carried away, 

 which may be effectively used upon flower after flower 

 until at last the ragged caudicle alone remains. 



Some time since, when I had announced the discovery 

 of some diseases previously not known amongst bees 

 a bee was sent to me, whose portrait is given at I 



