The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-02

nor less than busy bee, gathering nectar
from flower to flower of the lupin, and in
cidentally securing from every plant she
visited surety of next years fruitage.
| was sorry for the bee. These ever
recurring tragedies of the air are always
pitiable, and when, a little later, the
feathered hunter returned for another
morsel [ sat up, whereupon he fed on
swift wings to other hunting-grounds.
But there were many gardeners left.
They futtered about in every direction.
There were big red and black butterflies
and airy-looking yellow ones lowering over
the tall mlnts and wild honeysuckle.
There were beetles fitting among the pop
pies and nesting down among the clover
and the impernel, and bees IN great
numbers taking their fill from the purple
| cups of the soap plant. They were all
seeking to crafty their appetite for sugar,
but, incidentally every bug of them was
doing as much for the flowers as the flow
ers were for them.
l limited last week at something of this
wonderful process by which most of our
| flowers are fortified. l shall go more
| fully into it to-day and leaYe il to my
readers if | have not spoken Justly in call
ing our insect friends small gardeners.
Yonder in the shade, among the tares
and the watercress. few securing rushes
are growing. They belong TO the primeval
vegetation. They were giants in those
| days, the little rushes now scarcely foot
| high. They represent the lowest order of
vegetation and, like the ferns and moses,
| produce no seed, but propagate themselves
| by means of spores. They are fowerless
plants. The pine tree yonder by the gate
| is still higher order. They are the very
earliest form of Towering plant, but their
| flower is the hard, brown, unlovely cone,
| fertilized by the wind and attracting only
| the squirrels and certain of the birds who
| through an age-long evolutionary process
| have developed crossed bills to serve them
| in extracting the pine nuts. Close at hand,
| in the willow by the pool, we have still
more perfectly specialized order of vege-
tation. The willow, too, is wind fertiliZed,
| although, too, certain of the birds assist in
the process. The willow, however, de-
pends almost wholly upon the wind for
fertilization of its pretty hanging
the flowers, the stamens and pistils
which form the reproductive or
gans of the plant A month ago
! the air all along the ravine was full of the
| floating white pollen-bearing tufts of the
| willow. The wind bore them in every
direction, for so hazardous are the chances
of wind fertilization that nature. usually
so parslmonious, is plunged into the most
reckless extravaganza to accomplish her
ends. Some of the pollen was carried by
the winds down across the city and out
through the Golden Gate. Some fell among
the grasses and weeds, some was blown
afar over the orchards and only a very
infnitesimal portion of all produced ever
f1oated down upon the willow trees and
fulfilled the end for which it was created
This waste of pollen, produced at a
heavy expenditure by the plant, is so great
that one is tempted to wonder where Dame
Nature ever acquired her reputation fol
economy. You will find it in the season
lying useless and wasted on the ground il
pine forests. Those mysterious ''yellov
storms" of which we hear from time tx
time, filling the air and covering the eartl
: with fine powder are produced by the pol
len of trees blowing before the storm an(
precipitated uselessly to earth.
In the multitude of this waste the tree
get fertilized after q fashion and tn
species are preserved.
But these are primitive methods. In du
course of time insects began to appea
upon the scene. There was nothing TO
them in securing rushes and ferns, rich i.
silicon, nor in the hard fruits of tn
, conifers. But there were other plant
that produced pollen. The most of thes
were self-fertiliZers. puny, feeble even i
that age of rank vegetation. The insect
seeking food began eating the pollen c
: these plants. Passing from one to anothe
! little pollen from one flower busted upo
their heads and wings fell upon the pistil
| OF another and cross-fertilization wa