Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1881-10-08
Facts About Bees.

Mr.. c. L. Rider, of Canton, Mass,
to the Jounai Of EducatiOn some highly
interesting facts about the bee, obtained
by long and patient observation. Fol-
lowing are extracts from 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. l have
never seen an exception. Soon after
alighting they force their bodies down
as far as 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 TTginica and
the Iris verSic0lOr of the meadows, and
the process is the same, a bee aGghting
on one of the irises i'll my hand o."
Mr.. Rider thinks that the Office per-
formed by tie bee in making flowers
productive is to brush the pollen from
the anthers and convey it onits body di-
rectly into the ovary which it pierces.
He thus upsets a well-known popular
fancy:
"There is one popular delusion about
bees, and that is that a 'bee-line' is a
straight one. Let the following obser-
walton be considered. The hundreds of
bees in the meadows, seeking honey OF
the iris, and going away laden with it,
90 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 favorite knoll,
where bees are continually flying about,
l 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
a great distance in straight lines with
out any distractions, but from side tC
side in kind of zigzag motion of curved
lines.
"Again, passing along the street
there is a great buzzing in the trees neal
by. 1t is q swarm of bees. They arr
directly overhead, and stop and watcl
them; there's millions in it. They, too
fly long distance within sight, not il
straight lines, but in curves majestic
curves. Many of them fly swiftly from
one side of the swarm to the other, bu
always in curves. Perhaps they are thu
mounted police and this may explain
their curve-like motion, but it does no
explain why the whole swarm move
thus.
"Once more: near the last day of tn
term u bee flies into the school-room
During its flight across the room, per
haps twenty-five or thirty feet, it change
it. COURSE four or five times, alights on
window-pane, makes several iffeffectua
attempts to climb its smooth surface
scents a rose on a neighboring desk,
on it in an instant (curves AGAIN.,
unceremOniously thrust to the floor b
the young lady owning the rose, an
then in another instant makes bee-lin
(that is, such n line-Curves here, too
as a bee makcs) for the open window
and is off.
"From these observations, bee.lin
is not a Mechanically Straight one
any more than Court Street, or som
of the older streets of Boston, as the
originally existed, were straight; an
more than cow-paths are straight, G
the path of a squirrel climbing atree I
avoid the stone which the small boy
pretty ant to throw at him."