42 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 8, 1835. 
BEES IN RELATION TO FLOWERING PLANTS 
AND FRUIT PRODUCTION. 
[A Lecture delivered at South Kensington by F. Cheshire, Esq., F.R.M.S.] 
(Continued frontpage 19.) 
After pointing out the special adaptations to cross-fertilisation 
found in a number of blooms, the Lecturer turned the attention of 
the audience to orchard fruits. 
The Apple, he remarked, is called by the botanist a pseudo- 
syncarpous fruit, because it may be regarded as five fruits gathered 
into a unit by an envelope formed by a development of the calyx. 
If an Apple be cut across we see five compartments or dissepiments 
in the core, each one of which should contain pips or seeds. The 
bloom which preceded the fruit had five stigmas, each one of which 
communicated with a dissepiment and required an independent fertili¬ 
sation. Bees seeking honey would, by getting their breasts (furnished 
as they are with abundance of long webbed hairs) thoroughly dusted 
with Apple pollen and flitting to a bloom whose stigmata had reached 
the receptive condition, bring about fertilisation, it would, however, 
frequently happen that three or four of the stigmata only would be 
pollinated. In this case an Apple, though an imperfect one, would 
be produced. Trees agitated by the winds frequently drop a quantity 
of their fruits, hence known as windfalls, but the actual cause of this 
dropping is in by far the largest number of instances defective ferti¬ 
lisation. 
In an examination made some time since of a large number of 
windfalls, less than four per cent, were found to have fallen through 
injuries traceable to insect pests, while the remainder had received 
pollination in from one to four dissepiments only. 
Fertilisation is followed by a determination of nutrition towards 
the seeds, and the parenchyma of the Apple as a protective envelope 
gathers around them. If, therefore, we cut a defectivel}’’ fertilised 
Apple across the middle, we find a hollow shrunken side lying over 
the unfertilised portion of the core. These facts taken together show 
conclusively how completely our Apple crop is dependent upon insect 
agency, and amongst these the hive bee takes the most important 
place. 
In the case of the Strawberry the parts popularly denominated 
seeds which crowd its surface are really the fruits technically called 
achenia, while the Strawberry itself is really a succulent development 
from the flower-stalk. The stigma each of the achenia carries must 
be fertilised by insects which are attracted by the honey secreted by 
a ring of glands situate at the base of the Strawberry. The anthers 
are wide set, and as the insect walks around the bloom applying its 
tongue to the circle of glands, one side of its body is dusted with 
pollen from the anthers, while the other is applied to the stigmatic 
faces. In passing from bloom to bloom it frequently reverses the 
order of its progression, sometimes going round by turning to the 
right and sometimes to the left. As a result the pollen gathered up 
on one side of the body is probably transferred to the stigmas of the 
next flower visited. As in the case of the Apple, so here, fertilisation 
determines nutrition. The placentae of the fertilised achenia increase 
enormously, the Strawberry grows and matures, but where any of the 
stigmas escape impregnation, there the Strawberry remains without 
growth, while other parts are rapidly increasing around it. The 
examination of a few fruits would be sure to supply examples where 
in circumscribed spots no progress has been made since the first full 
expansion of the bloom. The achenia are close set and green, and 
the flesh of the Strawberry is there crude and hard, while the rest is 
sweet, soft, and luscious. Imperfect insect work is again the explana¬ 
tion, bringing before us the remarkable fact that no perfect Straw¬ 
berry can be produced without perhaps from three to four hundred 
independent fertilisations, accomplished it may be by the busy hive 
bee, which, in filling the niche in which the great Creator has placed 
it in unselfishly labouring in providing for the wants of its younger 
sisters, is unconsciously supplying to its master not honey only, but 
honey and fruit. 
The Raspberry, although of another type, somewhat resembles 
the Strawberry in the multiplicity of its stigmas (sixty or seventy to 
each bloom), the wide setting of its anthers (about eighty or ninety in 
number), and its circle of honey glands. Similarly, too, the insect 
visitor in seeking nectar passes between the anthers and stigmas, 
applying its right side to one and its left to the other. Each seed 
fertilised by these visits is soon surrounded by the luscious envelope 
which protects the seed from injury, and makes the manufacture of 
raspberry jam a possibility. These rounded red masses with their 
enclosed seeds, technically called drupels, are never formed unless 
fertilisation has taken place ; neither ripening nor growth being 
possible in its absence. We see then in an aspect which may be new 
to many of us, that this wondrous scheme of Nature has correlations 
which we never could have anticipated, that a large part of the insect 
world is complementary to plant life, and plants in turn the sustainers 
of these insects, and that man, although he can plant his trees, is in 
no small measure dependent for a crop upon the assistance of those 
little labourers, who, by their unconquerable industry, supplied his 
table with sweets for long ages before he discovered the uses of the 
sugar cane. 
HONEY MARKET. 
There is at the present about to be floated a company” termed tb e 
British Honey Company with a large capital, for tbe ostensible purpos e 
of improving tbe condition of bee-keepers by purchasing with ready money 
from them the produce of tbe hive in any quantity, without any restric¬ 
tions on tbe bee-keeper as to selling elsewhere, and for the purpose of 
supplying tbe public with pure honey. This is highly commendable, and 
deserves encouragement. But there are some questions relative to the 
persons concerned worthy of consideration. I suppose it may he said 
with safety that the shareholders are acting wholly in a philanthropic 
manner towards bee-keepers, expecting but a fair interest for their shares ; 
but will they be able to pay rents, give sufficient salaries to tbe employds, 
and a remunerative price for honey and comb, and to sell to the public at 
a price that will increase the number’of purchasers ? If so their efforts 
will be entirely satisfactory to all concerned. But I fail to see how these 
ends can be attained without either lowering considerably the price to the 
bee-keeper or raising it to the consumer, which will have the very opposite 
effect from that intended—viz., to create a market. There are other diffi¬ 
culties also. If it is really necessary to have a different system of dis¬ 
posing of honey than that which exists at present, I think there are better 
and cheaper plans than that proposed. There are at the present time no 
paucity of shops in any town but that would willingly sell on commission 
all samples of honey sent to them, and by a judicious distribution it 
would be brought immediately under the attention of consumers. The 
bee-keeper, then, has only to learn the wants of the customers as to the 
style and material of package ; but he will soon learn that it is the quality 
of the honey more than the package that creates the demand. Of late 
there has been by far too much stress put upon the package, which means 
expense, neglecting to impress the bee-keeper thoroughly with the im¬ 
portance of cleanliness and good quality. If bee-keepers will attend to 
these two things and get faith with the public, they will, I think, have no 
difficulty in obtaining a fair price at all times for any honey they have to 
sell. If we take the past twenty years as the average, the price may be 
fixed at from Is. to Is. 6 d. per lb. wholesale. Anything below that would 
render bee-keeping unprofitable. Much of our honey is secured through 
great labour and expense in moving our bees to good pasturage, and very 
often after both toil and expense there is no return. But we hope the bad 
years are gone, and that there is in store a succession of good ones. 
Some scheme, however, is necessary to bring bee-keepers into imme¬ 
diate communication with the consumer. This, I think, could be easily 
accomplished if something like the following was done. Let bee-keepers 
form themselves into an association having a representative in every town 
appointed by the central association, who shall receive from members the 
quantity and quality of the honey they have for sale. When this is ascer¬ 
tained the as-ociation should advertise the honey for sale with the n lines 
of the agents in each town, who may either sell or distribute samples to 
the different shopkeepers willing to sell on commission; but it would be 
better in such cases if the bee-keeper would con-ign direct to the proper 
quarter to be retailed. By such a system, if judiciously carried out, the 
bee-keeper would not only maintain a good price, but insure a speedy sale 
for his honey, while the shopkeeper would get a fair profit without any 
risk, and the public be supplied with pure honey at a moderate price. I 
have never had any difficulty in selling my honey, but had always a de¬ 
mand for more than I could supply, so was enabled to sell for my more 
unfortunate neighbours away from the town, much as described above. I 
think this plan would, if managed right, succeed far better in bringing the 
honey directly to the consumer and in a more satisfactory and cheaper 
way than any company or companies could ever expect to do. 
There are many ways of bringing honey under the notice of the public, 
which ultimately causes a demand. One only I will speak of at present, 
hut of two different persons; the one a lady, the other a gentleman. 
Their plan is to offer prizes for honey, and purchase all the cottagers can 
spare at from Is. 8rZ. to 2 s. per fib., which I learn is presented by these 
philanthropic people to their friends and acquaintances.—A Lanarkshire 
Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Wm. Cutbush & Son, Highgate and Barnet .—Catalogue of Flower and 
Vegetable Seeds. 
J. Cheal & Sons, Lowfield Nurseries, Crawley .—Catalogue of Vegetable 
and Flower Seeds for 1885. 
Charles Turner, Slough .—Catalogue of Seeds for the Kitchen and Flower 
Garden. 
Louis Van Houtte, Ghent, Belgium .—Catalogue of Gesneriaceous Plants. 
John Downie, 144, Princes Street, Edinburgh .—Catalogue of Vegetable 
and Flower Seeds. 
William Paul & Son, Waltham Cross .—Catalogue of Vegetable. Flower, 
and Agricultural Seeds, 1885. 
Kelway & Son, Langport, Somerset .—Manual for 1885. 
Edmund Philip Dixon. Hull .—Catalogue of Garden and Flower Seeds. 
