The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-17

scmbling the keel of boat This part,
called the keel arches over the curved
pistil and the stamens SO as to protect
them from the rain, the wind, and from
chance collisions with sundry objects
that might shake off the golden pollen
from the anthers, or might dry or mar
the sticky under surface called the
stigma at the end Of the pistii. Just
when the stigma is ready to receive
pollen upon its sticky surface from the
back Of the bee, the flower somehow
contrives to have some honey ready
for its polite and attentive visitor; and
the bee, knowing this fact, alights on
the banner or on the wings. He then
pushes his head against the hollow part
of the keel In order to insert his tongue
in the corolla tube and drink up the
nectar that is there. AS he does so,
the pent piStil is released from the
keel, and jumps forward as If moved
by spring. If the bee is a small one
and is on the banner where he ought
to be. the pistil will reach over his
back and before he can get away will
securely rub off the pollen dust; since
the pistil in this case is sticky on the
under side only. The bee sucks the
honey, wriggles out and flies to an
other blossom to repeat the operation.
the flower. The blossom needs one
visit, but it has no use for more. 1t
therefore drives a sharp bargain with
its insect friend by secreting only just
enough honey-one drop-tO induce the
bee TO call and so spring it's trap. After
that, not needing another visit, the
blossom notifies it's friend, the bee, so
to speak, that it is of no use to call
again, for the trap, once sprung, re-
mains closed. Probably the bee can
not get in again, since the pistil now
presses close down upon the banner.
Any honey that might still remain
would be only that on the farther side
of the pistil.
When the Trap Fails.
suppose that the bee takes all the
available honey when the trap is first
sprung. and that he does not frequent
that flower thereafter. 1t would be in
teresting to know more definitely
whether or not this is so. In order to
find out, I invite the cooperation of
other observers, especially of the school
children and their teachers in the sixth
grade, to whom the noble group of
legum'1Ous plants is assigned for spe-
cial observation. Suppose, however,
that the pistil of the lucern trap is
sprung without catching the bee in the
right position to get the pollen from
his back. In this case, the pistil misses
its intended aim, and remains infer
tilted. AS 1t now presses down upon
the standard petal, it cannot get pollen
upon its under side thereafter, and
hence VIII be precluded from ripening
It's ovules into fertile seeds. 1t will be
barren. Now, our students report that
the honey bee alights upon the wings
instead of upon the standard, and so
springs the trap without coming into
contact with the pistiI, unless, indeed,
the latter should brush against the
bees eyebrows as il shoots past, and
so get pollen in this manner. The re-
suit is that many of the ovuIes fail to
get cross-fertilized, and the crop of
lucern seed is CORRESPONDENCE small
If we could discover what kind of bee
does the best service-probably the
very small bees-in ross-fertilizing the
lucern. we might be able to double the
crop of lueern seed by putting a few
colonies of the right kind of bees near
the fields.
Anyone may observe that while the
seed pods on any lucern branch rare
ly number more than half a dozen, the
flowers are usually two dozen or more
Here, then, is a practical problem for
COHiiu UTILITIES iHdl ucTlNS so large a part
of their wealth from the lucern: Find
out what bee does exactly the right
thing in pay for the honey with which
the plant provides him
Another interesting study is to OBJ
serve how the lucern and the other
legumes protect their growing seeds in
the pods specislly developed for the
purpose. The lucern develops a stiff
corkscrew pod that resists the attacks
of insects: the astragulus covers its
seed case with a dense white, felty
wool; the pea has a large, leathery, in
fisted pod; the bean, a fieshy one The
red clover puts a leafy sheath below it's
flower head. Each legume, in fact, has
its special devices for the protection
of a product that is so largely the food
of nations.
The Clever Lawn Glover.
The little white or Dutch clover found