1909.] Importation of Live Stock into Brazil. 755 



cross would be potent to accomplish fertilisation. Kerner, 

 however, believes self-fertilisation possible. 



The varieties of Humble Bee having a proboscis as long as 

 or longer than the tube in which the pollen lies, and able to 

 effect pollination are: — Bombus hortorum, B. silvarum, B. 

 lapidarius, and B. muscorum, while of European species men- 

 tioned by Knuth in addition to the above are Bombus senilis, 

 B. confusus, and B. fragrans. The habits, however, of two 

 of the Bombi should be noted. With a proboscis varying in 

 length (according as the worker or the queen is taken) from 

 7 to 9*75 rnm., Bombus terrestris finds itself! unable to reach 

 the honey legitimately, and takes it by a back door, viz., by 

 first biting a hole through the tube that contains the honey. 

 Such treatment is, of course, harmful to the flower. Bombus 

 pratorum, with a proboscis 8 mm. long, behaves in the same 

 way. Once such a hole is made in the tube the honey can be 

 got by other honey thieves without the flower being benefited. 



The flowers of the red clover can be efficiently pollinated by 

 insects that may not have a proboscis long enough to reach 

 the honey, but which have strength or skill enough to pull the 

 wings or keel apart, so that the anthers and stigma emerge. 

 This is the case with, among others, the Hive or Honey Bee 

 (Apis mellifica). 



In several recent issues of the Journal* attention has been 

 drawn to the possible opening for the export of breeding stock 

 to Brazil. The Board have now 

 Importation of Live received, through the Foreign Office, a 

 Stock into Brazil. despatch and memorandum, prepared 

 by Mr. Milne Cheetham, First Secre- 

 tary at the British Embassy, which gives further information 

 as to cattle raising in Brazil, and the breeds best adapted for 

 crossing with the native stocks. Mr. Cheetham observes that 

 interest has been attracted to this subject by an Agricultural 

 Congress which has been held at Rio de Janeiro, and also by 

 the National Exhibition, where a number of cattle, Brazilian 

 and imported, were on view. 



The question is a practical one for Brazil, because the pas- 



* Aug., 1907, p. 303; March, 1908, p. 738; and April, 1908, p. 50. 



