BEES IN RELATION TO GARDENING. 



195 



BEES IN EELATION TO GAEDENING. 



By Walter F. Eeid, F.I.C., F.C.S. (Vice- Chairman of the British 

 Beekeepers' Association). 



[Read August 17, 1909.] 



Many of the greatest advances of modern science have been due to the 

 recognition of the fact that even the minutest organisms and particles of 

 matter are fully as worthy of detailed study as the grosser units that could 

 alone be investigated before the invention of the microscope. The utility 

 of such study has been abundantly demonstrated by the discovery of the 

 bacterial origin of disease, and the isolation of radium, which has revolu- 

 tionized our views of matter itself. Botanists were among the first to 

 recognize the importance of the infinitely little ; knowing how small a seed 

 could produce even the largest tree they readily accepted the microscopic 

 marvels that were listened to with incredulity by many of their contem- 

 poraries. The discovery of the fertilization of flowers by means of pollen 

 opened a new era for the horticulturist ; but it is only since the classical 

 researches of Mendel have been appreciated at their true value that 

 the reign of law has succeeded to the reign of chance in the improvement 

 of those products of the vegetable world that are necessary for our 

 existence. 



No sooner was it ascertained without doubt that pollen played a part 

 in the production of some of our most important crops than a series of 

 investigations into the methods of its distribution commenced, and these 

 investigations are still by no means complete. It is established beyond 

 doubt, especially through the patient researches of Darwin, not only that 

 insects are concerned in the pollination of flowers, but that certain 

 insects and flowers are adapted to each other in a most wonderful manner. 

 He found that bees especially contributed very materially to the produc- 

 tion of some of our most important crops ; in fact, without their aid 

 the seed would, in many cases, have been sown in vain. 



While all kinds of bees are useful to the agriculturist it is the hive 

 bee in particular that is his greatest friend, yielding, as it does, useful 

 products of its own in addition to its utility as a fertilizing agent. That 

 the beneficent action of these little workers was not sooner realized was 

 due in a large measure to the erroneous belief which prevailed as to the 

 nature of the substance which bees could be seen to collect from the 

 flowers. Until- the middle of the eighteenth century the little pellets of 

 pollen which bees bring into the hive were mistaken for wax. It was not 

 then known that wax was secreted by the bees themselves in glands 

 specially adapted for that purpose. That bees generally visit the same 

 kind of flower on each flight had not escaped notice ; Aristotle was aware 

 of the fact more than two thousand years ago ; but the important bearing 

 of this habit on the fertilization of flowers has only recently been fully 

 appreciated. 



