"Value of Bees

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 31, 30 August 1892, Page 4

"Value of Bees

When on the subject of the beneficial effects of bees in fertilising fruit tree blossoms, a writer in an exchange says that '• at a Dutch East India Island, the planted fruit trees bare no fruit, although they blossomed splendidly, until bees were introduced, when they fruited as well as in the old country. " Though no one will attempt to deny the value of the work of bees as well as other insects i n the fertilisation of flowers, especially in the case of pistillate flowers, there are some, as the orchids, in which fertilisation cannot be effected without the aid of" insects, but the flowers of the or dinary fruit trees as well as other hernia.. | phrodite plants, especially such as apples, pears, and plums, in which the stamens are numerous, insects are not a necessity except under peculiar 'circumstances, such as forcing glazed houses during the winter season, where the deficiency of sunlight and wind may prevent the pollen from being dispersed but out of doors insects are not actually necessary except as before specified, where the pistillate and staminato flowers are distinct, either on the same or different plants ; though in many cases the wind is sufficient, as may be seen when pine trees are in blossom, and pollen is diffused through the air as yellow dust. Some hermaphrodite flowers are so con» structed that the pollen in falling from, the stamens must of necessity come in contact with the pistil ; while in others the pistil has the power of motion, and, jerking itselt to the sides of the flowers , comes in contact with the anthers and carries off a portion of pollen There can be no doubt, however, that cross fertilisation, however effected, is a; bene ficial process.