The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-10-26
Facts About Bees.


Mr.. c. E Rider, of Canton, Mass,
10 the Journal of Education some highly
interesting facts about the bee, obtained
by long and patient observation. Fol-
lowing are extracts froms his letter:
'BeeS, large and small, never alight on
the top of the iris, but always in the
same place, between one of the winged
styles and one of the petals. have
watched hundreds of them. / have
never seen an exception. Soon after
alighting they force their bodies down
as far rs they possibly can into the very
narrow space where the petal and style
are very close together, breaking the
pollen from the anthers above them,
and in this place they extract the honey
have seen them do this on the iris of
the garden and on the Iris VirgiaicG and
the IRIS Uersicoior OF the meadows, and
the process is the same, bee aGghting
ON one OF the irises in my hand.n
Mr.. Rider thinks that the Office per-
formed by the bee in making flowers
productive is 70 brush the pollen from
the anthers and convey il onits body "a
rectly into the ovary which it pierces.
He thus upsets a well-known popular
fancy:
There is ono popular delusion about
bees, and that is that 'bee-line' is a
straight one. Let the following obser-
vation be considered. The hundreds of
bees in the meadows, seeking honey of
the iris, and going away laden with it,
go in series of delicately curved lines,
and not in straight ones. In the woods
and fields their course is Just the same.
Sitting or reclining on a favorite knoll,
where bees are continually flying about,
1 have seen them day after day, at the
rate of six or eight every minute. make a
number of circles, large and small, about
my head, and then fly off with great ra-
pidity, not in straight lines for any con-
siderably distance, and this, too, where
there was plenty of room for them TO fly
8 great distance in straight lines with
out any Instructions, but from side TO
side in kind of zigzag motion of curved
lines.
'sAgain, passing along the street,
there is a great buzzing in the trees near
by 1t is swarm of bees. They are
directly overhead, and stop and watch
them; there's millions in it. They, too,
fly long distance within sight, not in
straight lines, but in majestic
curves. Many of them fly swiftly from
one side of the swarm to the other, but
always in curves. Perhaps they are the
mounted police, and this may explain
their curve-iks motion, but it does not
explain why the whole swarm moves
thus.
"Once more: near the last day of the
term a bee flies into the school-room.
During its fight scross the room, per-
haps twenty-fiveor or thirty feet, it changes
its course four or five times, alights on Q
window-pane, makes several Intellectual
attempts to climb its smooth surface,
scents rose on q neighboring desk, is
on it in an instant (eurves again), is
unceremoniously thrust 70 the floor by
the young lady owning the rose, and
then in another instant makes bee-line
| (that is, such hne-curves here, too
as bee makes) for the open window,
and is off.
"From these observations, a bee-Ene
Is not a mathematically straight one,
any more than Court Street, or some
of the older streets of Boston, as they
originally existed, were straight; any
more than cow-paths are straight, OF
the path of squirrel climbing q tree 70
avoid the stone which the small boy II
pretty ant to throw ct him"