Vashon Island news-record. [volume] (Vashon, Wash.) 1919-1954, 1923-02-02

created the herbage of the earth,
as Moses says: "And the earth
brought forth grass and herb
yielding seed after his kind, and
the tree yielding fruit whose seed
was itself after his kind, and God
saw that it was good, and the
evening and the morning were the
third day Of creation and then
the chaos and mists having clear
ed away He also made the swim
mers in the waters and the hiers
in the air, F" and | am sure among
them were the moths and butter
ltllies and bees. Even at this time
they had much work to do in the
ECONOMY of nature, because there
were dioecious plants and trees,
and monoecious plants and trees
which could Only bear seed aft
er their kind by pollenization
through the agency of insects and
to attract them God placed honey
in the corrolla of the flowers. and
we may suppose that bees even
!hen We're the most important in
|struments in this work of nature.
IKE bees assistance was neces-
sary not only to bring pollen from
storminate or male flowers to pis-
tilate or female flowers, but to al
so mterpollenate the species so
that new blood or vigor might be
infused into them.
Skipping a few million of years,
some of you will remember the
wild plum groves east of the
Rockies. We found them all along
the Missouri river up to the Brit
lsh line. In the same grove were
many sorts of plums; some round,
others oval; red ones and yellow
ones, varying in flavor, and some
were good to eat. Why all this
ihybrldization? Evidently to main
tam the vigor and prolifcness of
the plants AID to support them in
the battle Of the ages for the sur
jvival of the fittest. In this battle
the insects, chief among them the
bees, played the most important
lpart.
AT the same time in all this
wonderful operation of nature ii
was necessary to preserve the
species distinct in the genus of the
order or family of plants, and so
God placed an instinct in the bee
by which it will as a rule visit at
the same time only the flowers of
the variety on which it is at work.
They will not pass indiscriminate-
ly from one genus OF plant to an
other genus in their collection of
nectar. You watch a bee working
on Epilobium or freweed. There
may be Michaelmas daisies near
by but it will pay no attention to
these. Thus the genus and the
/ species are kept distinct, the same
las in animals.
Some trees and plants are mono
eclouS having the Staminate and
piStilate flowers separate but on
the same plant as the cucumber,
the pines and the hazels. These the
winds or insects must pollenize.
Some plants have compound
flowers and fruits like the Rubus
genus OF the rose family. The
raspberry and blackberry and log
an berry are good examples. In
The raspberry flower We have a
disc with a spreading five-parted
calyx, five deciduous petals and
many stamens inserted in the
border of the disc. The ovaries
number probably 100, each having
two ovules but one always abort
i've. We have here compound
berry, the whole consisting of
about 100 little berries, each one
having style and stigma which
must be pollenized and have a per-
feet seed for the perfect growth of
the berry in order 10 make a full
grown, perfect compound berry.
1t is the same with the apple, pear
and cherry. In order to have Il
fully developed and perfect fruit
there should be two seeds in each
of the five seed pockets of the ap-
pie. A plum or cherry must have