402 
FRUIT BLOSSOMS 
genus Ribes, all secrete nectar and are 
largely dependent on insects for pollina¬ 
tion. The Journal of the Board of Agri¬ 
culture, England, says that when insects 
were excluded from gooseberries, red and 
white currants, practically no fruit was 
formed. When artificially pollinated with 
pollen from the same flower or variety 
they all proved self-fertile, and set fruit 
perfectly; but the pollen is so adhesive 
that it is not readily transferred from the 
anthers to the stigma except by the visits 
of insects. 
In the European gooseberry ( Ribes gros- 
sularia) the anthers open before the stigma 
is fully grown and capable of pollination. 
Moreover, the flowers hang downward, 
and, as the anthers stand at the same level 
as the stigma, the pollen cannot, as a rule, 
fall on it, and thus in the absence of in¬ 
sects no fruit is produced. The flowers 
are adapted to bees, and honeybees, bum¬ 
blebees, and wild bees are very frequent 
visitors. A bee while sucking nectar 
touches the stigma with one side of its head 
and the anthers with the other side, so that 
in a succession of visits it cannot fail to 
effect cross-pollination. The European 
gooseberries do not succeed well in this 
country; and our native northern goose¬ 
berry ( Ribes oxyacanthoides) has been ex¬ 
tensively planted in the northern States 
under the name of Houghton. It is easily 
cultivated and enormously productive. At 
the Connecticut Experiment Station 72 
species of insects have been listed as visit¬ 
ors. 
The flowers of the red currant ( Ribes 
rubrum ) are also usually cross-pollinated 
by insects; but, as the anthers and stigma 
mature simultaneously and the flowers 
often stand sidewise, self-pollination may 
occur by the pollen falling on the stigma. 
Honeybees, wild bees, and flies are very 
common visitors. In the black currant 
(Ribes nigrum) the pistil is a little longer 
than the stamens, and self-pollination may 
occur regularly in the absence of insects 
by the pollen falling on the stigma. In an 
Alpine species of currant ( Ribes alpinum) 
the stamens and pistils are in different 
flowers so that no fruit sets in the absence 
of insects. » 
Cranberry. —The cranberries are adapt¬ 
ed to pollination by bees, The anthers close¬ 
ly surround the single style, and are pro¬ 
longed upward into long tubes, which open 
by pores in the ends, from which pollen 
falls on the head of a bee seeking nectar. 
The stigma projects beyond these tubes, 
and thus receives pollen collected by the 
approaching insect from other flowers. In¬ 
dividual flowers remain in bloom for more 
than two weeks. On a large cranberry bog 
the flowers are as numberless as the sands 
of the sea, and the indefatigable industry 
of bees is alone equal to the work of pol¬ 
linating them. 
The United Cape Cod Cranberry Com¬ 
pany, which has some 700 acres of cran¬ 
berries under cultivation, has discovered 
that the wild bees are not sufficiently nu¬ 
merous to do this work satisfactorily; and 
that the yield per acre can be greatly in¬ 
creased by placing colonies of bees near 
the bogs. “One test,” says E. R. Root, 
“was significant. The cranberry bog at 
Halifax contains 126 acres. On one side 
of this there were three or four colonies of 
honeybees last year. It is evident that this 
number was inadequate to cover the entire 
field, and it is noteworthy that the yield of 
cranberries per acre Avas in direct propor¬ 
tion to the proximity of such acreage to 
the bees. The yield Avas heaviest close to 
the hives, and became thinner and thinner 
as the distance' from the hfves increased. 
The showing was so remarkable in this and 
other bogs that it is proposed to increase 
materially the investment in bees another 
year. A small area of cranberry bog was 
screened to exclude the bees. The screened 
portion had very little fruit, Avhile that 
free to the visitation of bees had a large 
yield. In consequence many cranberry- 
growers are planning to go into the bee 
business for the purpose of obtaining a 
greater crop of cranberries. In our travels 
over the United States we never saw a 
situation that demonstrated more clearly 
the value of bees as pollinators than did 
this piece of cranberry bog.” 
Blueberry and Huckleberry. — The 
most valuable of American wild fruits are 
the blueberry and huckleberry from which 
there are annually gathered several million 
dollars’ worth of fruit. There are in this 
country more than 150 species belonging to 
these two genera growing in a great variety 
of situations, as dry rocky pastures, 
