And flowers the fairest that may feast the bee. 
—Byron: Lara 
VII 
MARRIAGE PRIESTS OF THE FLOWERS 
B ESIDES securing their own food supply, for¬ 
aging honey bees unconsciously perform a 
valuable function in fertilizing fruit blooms and 
other flowers, thus making greater crops of fruit 
and causing flowers to bear seed and propagate. 
Mr. J. E. Crane has called bees the “marriage 
priests of the flowers.” Flower fertilization is ar¬ 
ranged in a very wonderful way and bees often play 
an important role in the drama. Pollen from 
stamens must penetrate the pistil to the ovule of a 
flower before it bears seed, and plants which are 
not self-fertilizing depend on wind or insects for 
pollination. 
Bees may often be seen on flowers, or on the 
combs, with round balls of bright-colored pollen on 
their hind legs. For their convenience nature has 
provided them with “pollen baskets”—a network of 
interlacing hairs between the leg joints which serve 
to hold the tightly packed pollen until it can be un¬ 
loaded at home. 
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