1876 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
against the abdomen of the bee, which, in the ob¬ 
lique movement, is hit first by the stigma, and then 
Fig. 8 . — Style 
from the same 
taken later, its 
brush loaded 
with pollen. 
Fig. I.—Same as Jig. 5, cut through and enlarged. 
by the part of the style just beneath. Now this is 
furnished with bristly hairs, thickly set, in the man¬ 
ner of a bottle-brash. To see this clear by itself 
we must look into a flower-bud. Figure 7 shows 
one like figure 5 cut through. Five of the still un¬ 
opened anthers are seen ; and the style with its 
brash in the center. Figure 8 shows the same 
style from an open flower. The difference is that 
the brush is loaded with pollen. The anthers have 
discharged their contents in such a 
way that almost- the whole is borne 
by the beard of the style. So, when 
a bee visits a flower and depresses 
the keel by his weight, he brings 
some particular part of his hairy ab¬ 
domen first against the stigma, then 
against the pollen-loaded brush. 
Some of the pollen so transferred 
from the hairs of the style to the 
hairy surface of the bee’s body, is 
certainly transferred to the stigma 
of the next flower visited, a fresh 
charge of pollen taken to be bestow¬ 
ed upon the next flower, and so on. It is as neat 
and as sure as a printing-press, in which the types 
are first inked by the roller, and the ink thence 
transferred to the paper. 
The contrivance in Beans ( Phaseolus ) is similar, 
with a difference. In the country, in the writer’s 
boyhood days, not “ to know beans,” was the cur¬ 
rent expression for utter¬ 
most ignorance. Here is 
something about beans 
which, it is safe to say, few 
of those brought up among 
them even yet know. The 
blossom is on the same plan 
as that of Pea, Locust, and 
the like, (see fig. 9); but the 
standard is smaller; the wings more horizontal and 
projecting; the keel long, narrow, turned up to¬ 
ward the center 
of the flower, 
and (if a buco¬ 
lic comparison 
may be permit¬ 
ted), curled up 
after the simili¬ 
tude of a pig’s 
tail. Figure 10 
shows this, 
apart from the 
rest of the flower, and enlarged. How the pistil is 
coiled up within this is shown, in the section of the 
same, more enlarged, (fig. 13) ; the stamens are left 
out, for clearness. Note the style, with the stigma 
set obliquely at its tip, and 
below it for some distance the 
brush of hairs, mainly on the 
same side as the stigma. This 
figure, taken in the unopened 
flower, shows the brush free 
from pollen. But the anthers 
shed their pollen just when 
the flower is about to open ; 
and somehow this pollen most¬ 
ly, then, gets packed upon the 
brash, so as to be as in figure 
14. Now for the operation. 
Stamens and pistil lie concealed in the coil; the 
stigma just within the open end ; the anthers a 
little farther back, but in the open flower already 
empty and withering. Press down the wing-petals 
Fig. 9.-- Bean-blossom. 
Fig. 10.— Same enlarged and all the 
petals except the keel removed. 
Fig. 11 —Same as 9, 
with the icing-petals 
weighed down, and 
stigma and brush 
protruding. 
gently, as is done in figure 11; these, being locked 
at the base with the keel, act so as to depress the 
coil of the style within, and out pops the stigma 
and its pollen - laden brush; 
withdraw the pressure and back 
it goes to its hiding place. The 
separate keel, greatly enlarged 
with the protruding stigma and 
brush, is shown in figure 12. 
When the pressure is made by a 1 ~' — ^ e . e ^ 0, J l 
, , . , . y. the same enlarged. 
bee, searching for honey within 
the base of the flower between the keel and the 
standard, the same movement takes place ; the stig¬ 
ma first, and then the brush, strikes against a certain 
portion of the front or side of the bee’s body, and so 
brings about the fertilization of each blossom by 
some other than its own pollen. The machinery tells 
Fig-. 13 .—Enlarged section.of Fig. 14.— Same pistil after the 
the keel, .showing the pistil discharge of the pollen upon the 
within, beforethe anthers open. brush of the style. 
its own story plainly. The confirmation is familiar 
to all who “ know beans” and their facility of mix¬ 
ing when different varieties are grown together. 
--—s-- 
Lilies from Seed. 
— o 
In discussing the subject of Lilies with Anthony 
Waterer, Esq., the well known English nursery¬ 
man, we learned from him that the same trouble 
had been found with the Gold-banded Lily, IAlium 
auratum , in England, that has been experienced 
here. We have more than once referred to the fact 
that though thousands upon thousands of Lilium 
auratum bulbs had been imported and sold here, ! 
we rarely saw an established bed out of all that 
have been planted. The experience has been the 
same in England as here; the bulbs throw up a 
small flower stem, produce one to four or five flow¬ 
ers, the stem dies down, and the next year fails to 
appear altogether, or a few' weak shoots come up ; 
upou digging’ the bed we find that ail the large 
bulbs have disappeared, leaving in their place others 
not larger than hickory nuts. Mr. Waterer informs 
us that he had no success with L. auratum until he 
grew his own bulbs from seed, and that lie now has 
several acres in this lily, raised from both seeds and 
scales, the bulbs of which can be as much depend¬ 
ed upon as those of any other lily. In his favora¬ 
ble climate and soil, he gets good flowering bulbs 
in three years from the seed. We have never seen 
this grand iily in perfection, and probably our cli¬ 
mate will not allow' us to do so ; Mr. W. states that 
he measured one stem eleven feet high, and it had 
135 flowers upon it. This far surpasses anything we 
can hope to equal, and we shall be quite content 
if w'e can get our poor half-dozen blooms, and can 
depend upon holding on to the bulb year after year. 
Knowing the impatience of our flower growers, we 
are sure that few will be content to wait during 
three years from seed to flower, and we can not in 
this country hope to get flowering plants as soon 
as that. Still, to those inclined to try raising 
this and other lilies from seed, we would remind 
them that the sowing should be made as soon as 
the seed is ripe ; if kept until spring it rarely germi¬ 
nates, and the plants, whether young or old, should 
have abundant shade. 
Kcelhecteria paniculata.— It seems to be a 
great pity that a tree w'ith so many elements of 
popularity as this, should be so little known. We 
have several times called attention to it, and shall 
probably do so several times more, for we can do 
lovers of neat, pleasing trees no better service. 
The dark green, handsomely cut foliage is remark¬ 
ably clean ; we do not recollect to have ever seen 
383 
an insect upon it. The flowers are abundant, light 
yellow, in pyramidal clusters ; and the large, blad¬ 
dery pods are quite showy. The tree grows readily 
and rapidly from seeds, which the dealers in tree 
seeds supply in small quantities, if desired. 
jjgp” For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
AY'luit docs a. Mother’s Work Include i 
I often plead for a fair chauee for mothers to do 
their work, and I know well that some who hear 
me or who read my words, have little sympathy with 
my earnestness. If a woman manages somehow to 
keep her children tolerably well fed, clothed, and 
schooled, and as healthy as most children, what 
would’ she have more ? 
She would have their companionship, their inti¬ 
mate acquaintance and friendship. She would 
gladly do for her children what only a good mother 
can do, with the best success. The dress-maker 
and tailor can*clothe them for money, hired cooks 
can feed them, professional teachers can attend to 
their arithmetic and spelling, and yet there may be 
left a plenty of mother work and care. I remember 
well a young mother whom I met before I had a 
family of my own. She had but one child, a boy 
of three. It struck me then that I had never seen 
a real mother before, the relation between these 
two was so much more perfect, and so much more 
natural, than any I had seen before between parent 
and child. She was not all absorbed in her child ; 
she did not think him perfect, and did not worship 
him. She worked for the Sanitary Commission, 
and had a hearty interest in the general affairs of 
the day. But every step of her child’s progress 
was interesting and important. The tendency of 
his pastimes, and the influence of his play-mates 
were thoughtfully considered. The instinctive 
workings of his mind were studied, in the hope of 
being able to meet his growing intellectual and 
moral needs. His daily habits were guarded, so 
that he might early get a healthy bent, and lay a 
good foundation for a healthy and vigorous man¬ 
hood. Ilis mother played with him, and read to 
him, and gave good heed to all liis questions, 
though she might not answer them until a proper 
time came, or perhaps not at all. Most people who 
knew her, may have noticed only that she enjoyed 
her child’s society, without thinking what she was 
doing for him. A few knew that it was a reciprocal 
education of incalculable benefit to both mother 
and child. Her mind was at liberty to make her 
child’s culture her chief business. When I knew 
her she had very few household cares, and she al¬ 
lowed society to make no heavy demands upon her 
time and thoughts. She said that nothing amazed 
her more than to see that mothers generally were 
not acquainted with their children, and did not seem 
to realize the fact. 
To show what some mothers are thinking about, 
I will quote from a recent letter from the playmate 
who was my chief partner in the mud-pie business, 
over thirty years ago. She says : “ But when a 
mother has to hurry up from her sick-bed, and be¬ 
gin to burn baby off, and wish and watch for his 
nap, so that she can fly around and do as much 
work as can he crowded in, and say 1 O dear ! ’ when 
the nap is over, and turn off the other children be¬ 
cause she ‘can’t spend time,’ it’s all wrong. O. 
gives me a lesson once in a while. She believes in 
children having a good time, whether 1 the work ’ 
is done or not. She was here, and G. was teasing 
me to go down to the river and throw stones, and 
I said ‘I can’t spend time. I’m in a hurry.’,—0. 
said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed! Only one child and 
can’t take time to please him by going to the river 
to play a little while ! ’—Then she made me promise 
to go up to her house with G., and not to take a 
stitch of work, but just roam around or go fishing, 
or do anything we wanted to.” 
I have lately had some refreshing talks with a 
