January I, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
19 
BEES IN' RELATION TO FLOWERING- PLANTS 
AND FRUIT PRODUCTION. 
£A Lecture delivered at South Kensington by F. Cheshire, Esq , F.R.M.S.] 
After referring incidentally to the greatly increased profits 
now attainable by bee culture in consequence of our improved 
methods of management Mr. Cheshire remarked: If we take 
our stand before a flourishing hive on a fine summer day we 
note that the busy workers as they settle, at their return from 
their excursions in the fields, bear in numerous instances 
variously coloured pellets on the tibia of their hind legs. The 
ancients supposed these masses to consist of wax, aud even 
Reaumur fell into this error, referring to these pellets as “ la 
circ brute.” We now know perfectly well that they are composed 
of multitudes of pollen granules which have been gathered by a 
process we shall hereafter examine, and the use of which we 
shall presently see, and that wax is not collected but secreted 
by glands situated beneath the abdomen. Could we follow these 
workers into the darkness of the hive and here observe their 
movements we should find that they walk up the sides of their 
combs seeking first a cell into which the pollen may be appro¬ 
priately placed, and they then turn to another, either empty or 
already devoted to honey, and into that they discharge ifrom 
their honey sack the nectar which they have secured from the 
honey glands of the blooms visited. 
Two questions now present themselves to us. Why do the 
bees so industriously gather these substances P and why do 
blooms provide them P It is to the second of these questions 
that we must devote our most serious attention, but the first if 
we would really understand the second must not be overlooked. 
If we were to proceed to examine the combs of the hive just 
referred to we should find many hundreds of their cells, contain¬ 
ing each a tiny pearly coloured egg about the l-14th of an inch 
long and the l-70th of an inch in diameter. These eggs have 
been deposited by one insect, called, although very inappropriately 
so, the queen, for she in reality exercises no authority, and when 
old and fading is turned out in favour of a more vigorous suc¬ 
cessor. This mother bee, for so we may more accurately desig¬ 
nate her, is capable of depositing no less than from two to three 
thousand eggs daily during the breeding season. She inserts 
her abdomen into a cell and in two or three seconds withdraws 
it, when the egg is found adherent to the cell-base This duty 
of ovipositing is so onerous that she is excused all care of her 
numerous progeny, which is attended exclusively by the workers, 
formerly but falsely called neuters, for they are really females, 
but with their reproductive organs aborted. 
The egg kept warm by heat constantly produced by oxidation 
of honey in the bodies of the workers developes within it its 
germ, and in about three days a very small grub emerges, with 
but imperfectly formed mouth, no distinguishable eyes, and no 
organs of locomotion. It is a necessity that food should be 
brought to it as it lies at the bottom or back of the cell. The 
workers acting as nurses now sedulously tend it, preparing in 
their bodies a highly nutritious food resembling thin arrowroot 
and elaborated from water, honey, and pollen. The two latter we 
have previously traced to their origin, and it needs only now be 
said that the first of these is a true force-former, giving to the 
grub energy for movement and for the vital processes to be con¬ 
tinued within it, while the pollen is a true tissue-former, being 
rich in nitrogen and containing potash, phosphorus, and sulphur 
salts. The food is poured over the body of the grub by the nurse, 
and so liberally that the bantling literally floats in it; one side 
of the body, however, always remaining dry, so as to be capable 
of taking in a due supply of air through the eleven spiracles or 
breathing-holes which may be traced in a line along its side. 
The imperfect mouth has its work supplemented by an ability to 
absorb aliment by osmose through any portion of the skin. 
Rapid growth is the result, and soon a large fat “ gentle ’’-like 
creature two-thirds fills the cell. The ever-watchful workers at 
this point commence to imprison it by placing over the mouth of 
its cell a cover, technically called the sealing, which is composed 
of pollen grains and wax shreds, and which is pervious to the 
air, so that the needed amount of oxygen may reach the grub 
within. The grub also makes preparation for the wonderful 
transformation which awaits it, by building over itself a silken 
cocoon. During twelve days developments and alterations are 
continued, which our time will not permit us to follow in any 
detail, but in the end changes of a most radical nature are 
effected. The nervous system is completely recast. Instead of a 
chain of pretty equal ganglionic masses running the length of 
the digestive tube, nerve-centres are established in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the insertion of the wings and legs to give to. these 
parts the abounding energy they require in the perfect insect. 
The mouth and eyes have each now considerable ganglia, and the 
sting is also providtd with its source of stimulus. Legs marvel¬ 
lous in form and adaptation, and carrying, cleaning, gathering, 
feeling, and modelling appliances are evolved. Four beautiful 
wings are provided, new glands have made their appearance, eyes 
of great complexity are now possessed, and last but not least a 
tongue has presented itself, so wondrously perfect and minutely 
delicate, that some points in its structure are until now furnish¬ 
ing the microscopist with unsolved if not inso'vable problems. 
In a word, the soft-bodied helpless grub has become a bee. 
Time forces us to leave this tempting subject, simply remarking 
that we have answered our first query, for we now see why honey 
and pollen are gathered. Let us now address ourselves to the 
second, and inquire why the blooms furnish these substances to 
their insect visitors. 
Blooms are produced by plants in order that seeds may follow, 
and so the race be continued. Two parts are essential to this 
reproduction—the anther and the pistil, the latter very generally 
occupying the central position. The anther is usually a double- 
celled pouch, the contents of which by segmentation breaks up 
into a number of perfectly similar parts called pollen grains, 
which, though minute, are complex in structure. When these 
are mature the anther splits or dehisces, and the pollen escapes, 
but it needs in some way to be applied to the termination of the 
pistil called the stigma. When this application is effected the 
pollen grain absorbs moisture, its interior portion swells, and 
actually throws out a tube which often grows to a great length 
in making its way towards the unimpregnated nucleus of the 
ovule which is situated in the ovary at the base of the pistil. In. 
this nucleus a large cavity filled with protoplasm has developed, 
called the mother-cell, within which we find the embryonal vesic e 
to which the contents of the pollen grain is transferred by the 
channel of the pollen-tube. This is fertilisation, and upon it 
depends the production of seed, for the new individual plant has 
its beginnings from this interfusion. 
An examination of most blooms will show that the essential 
organs before referred to are so placed that an accidental or 
unaided transfer of pollen to stigma is unlikely, and where this 
arrangement of parts is not found it frequently occurs that the 
anthers ripen and dehisce much before, or not until some time 
after, the stigma has so matured as to be ready for pollination. 
In the former case, as we may observe in the common garden 
Nasturtium (Tropoeolum majus), the pollen is all carried away by 
insects by the time the stigma presents itself, so that if fertilisa¬ 
tion be effected it must be through the bringing of pollen from 
other blooms still shedding it. Insects are the means which 
accomplish this, and to secure their visits the blooms spread 
them a banquet. 
(To be continued.) 
HIVE CONSTRUCTION. 
Permit me to thank “A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” for his reply to my 
list letter. I think I can easily construct a hive and stand from his lett er 
of the 11th lilt, without troubling him to send me a pattern box and stand. 
There are, however, a few points I should like explained. 1, Do lateral 
slides cover spaces and part of frames, or simply run along the top bar of the 
frame. 2, Are the perforated zinc and bottom slide both on the lowest box ? 
3, The middle box (2 inches deep) I assume is bottomless and lidless ? What 
is its use, and when it rests on the perforated zinc is there not a crevice 
between it and the lowest box unless a ledge is put round ? 4, Do sections 
cover all the spaces between the top bars of the frames, when in use ; if 
not (and the lateral slides do not cover the spaces outside the sections), 
how are the spaces covered beyond the sections ? 5, The sizes (length, 
breadth, thickness) of tops, sides, and bottoms of the frames of body hives, 
and also the sizes for sections. 6, When sections are braced together how 
are the sides of the two outside sections covered? 7, Could not a shallow 
(crate) frame be used for the sections and the sections suspended by small 
tacks similar to stock frames ? It strikes me that then they (the sections) 
could be easily withdrawn, and there would be free access to the bees 
without the cross pieces usually fixed in crates for the supers to stand 
upon, and the tacks could be withdrawn before the sections are packed 
for market. 7, I should be thankful for a description of an outside case 
for square hive which your correspondent has described.— Basil. 
Query 1, Yes ; hut perhaps “ Basil” might find two slides on the top 
bar answer his purpose as well. Thus if the top bar measure 1^ inch eac 
slide will require to be £ of an inch. They will then close in the middle ; 
he can try thar. The slides must be of mild wood, so that they lie flat. 
2, Perforated zinc must be on one edge of the floor and sliding boards 
on the other, so that it will reverse if desirable. . 
S, What “ Basil ” calls the middle box is the floor as described m 
