BEES AS FRUIT-PRODUCERS. 323 



And here let us remark in a parenthesis that the 

 multitude of pollen granules furnished by entomo- 

 philous plants, although usually less than in the case 

 of the anemophilous, is, nevertheless, enormous ; the 

 single paeony, e.g., yielding about three and a half 

 millions per flower, while the number of granules 

 actually utilised is measured by the number of the 

 ovules. In the curious cleistogamous flowers produced 

 occasionally or regularly by not a few plants, and which 

 do not open at all, or only in part — as the scentless 

 and small autumnal blossoms of the violet — there is 

 no repast for the insect, of nectar there is none, 

 and not a granule of pollen to spare ; for the anthers 

 and stigma, especially the former, are extremely small. 

 Yet self-fertilisation is completed, and seeds are 

 abundantly furnished, for all causes of waste are 

 avoided. But to return. 



The apple, as its blossom indicates, is, strictly, a 

 fusion of five fruits into one — hence called pseudo- 

 syncarpous — and demands, for its production in per- 

 fection, no less than five independent fertilisations. 

 If none are effected, the calyx, which really forms 

 the flesh of the fruit, instead of swelling, dries, and 

 soon drops. An apple often develops, however, though 

 imperfectly, if four only of the stigmas have been 

 pollen dusted, but it rarely hangs long enough to 

 ripen, the first severe storm sending it to the pigs 

 as a windfall. I had 200 apples, that had dropped 

 during a gale, gathered promiscuously for a lecture 

 illustration, and the cause of falling, in every case but 

 eight, was traceable to imperfect fertilisation. These 

 fruits' may be generally known by a deformity; one part 



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