70 
THE STORY OF THE OAK TREE 
it. When the pistil is ripe he takes off the bag and places 
upon the pistil pollen from his carnation. After which 
he shuts the flower up again in its bag until the seed 
begins to form, and there he has the seed for a new 
flower! 
That is the way Luther Burbank does it. 
Now let us see how Nature does it, let us see what 
messengers Nature uses to carry the pollen from flower 
to flower, and so effect cross-fertilization. 
She uses the wind, and she uses insects. 
She uses bees—bumble bees and honey bees—wasps, 
and flies, and beetles. She uses insects that crawl and 
insects that fly, snail and moth, ant and butterfly, the 
homely slug and the gorgeous humming-bird. All these 
insects, and countless others, visit flowers in order to eat 
the pollen or the honey they 
find there. The bee lights 
upon the violet petal and 
pushes his trunk down the 
nectar pounch to taste the 
honey; as he does so he gets 
his back dusted with pollen 
Bee Rifling Flower from ^ stamens above. He 
flies away, and on entering another violet he rubs the 
fine yellow grains off upon the pistil which opens to re¬ 
ceive them, and the flower is pollinated. Or, hovering 
