CHAPTER XIX

THE STORY OF FERTILIZATION

“WELL, as nearly as I can remember,” began Billy, “Miss Gardener said she had been studying very hard on the formation of parts of flowers, and the story of fertilization. It was pretty dry stuff, too, as it was taught when she was young; but the way she told it was so interesting that I took notes which will help me in telling you about

THE BIRTH OF SEED BABIES. FORMATION OF THE PISTIL

The pistil is the tall green center stalk generally found in the midst of the stamens.

The pistil is very interesting, for it has to do with the way in which the seed baby is born.

{the stigma (the top), The pistil has three parts {the style (the stem), {the ovary (seed holder).

“The pistil is the real mother of the seed babies.”

“Here, Mary Frances, I am going to cut a flower off that geranium in the window, down the center to show you. Mother will not object.”

When Billy had cut the flower down lengthwise he explained further

THE NEED OF POLLEN

Now, the pistil needs pollen off the anthers of some other flower in order to bring seed-babies to life. Oh, yes, Mary Frances, I’m coming to the part about the bees. The pistil needs pollen, as I said; sometimes a pistil needs the kind of pollen which is on the anthers of the same plant, sometimes a pistil needs pollen from the anthers of some other plant, but it must have pollen to give seed babies life.

HOW CAN THE FLOWERS GET POLLEN

Now, flowers cannot walk, nor can the pistils or stamens of flowers walk. How can they get the pollen powder to their pistils? How can the pollen powder get to their pistils?

THE FLOWERS SPREAD A FEAST FOR INSECTS

In some cases the breeze blows some pollen upon the pistils of a few flowers, but it is a very _uncertain_ way, to depend on a breeze; so the wonderful flowers _spread a feast_ of just the most delightful food for _bees_, and sometimes for butterflies, and sometimes for moths; and not only do they get the most enticing food ready for such insects, but they put out the most beautiful signs telling them the feast is ready.

They make the sign just as attractive as they possibly can for the particular kind of insect they wish to come to them to eat.

They use the loveliest colors and the most delightful odors, which please the bees, the butterflies, the moths, more than they please even you and me, by their wonderful beauty and fragrance.

NECTAR

The food they give the bee is—no, Mary Frances, it is not honey, it is _nectar_, out of which the bees make honey.

HONEY BEE’S HONEY-CHURNS

Yes, I know you want to learn how they make it. No, they do not churn it in a churn; they really churn it, though. That is a good guess. They churn it in their honey-sac stomachs. The honey bees love pollen, too. It is their flour—pollen flour—and they carry it to their hives in little basket-like places on their legs.

THE INSECTS CARRY POLLEN

Now, the bees in coming to get this feast of good things to eat—the nectar for honey, and the pollen for bee-flour, both of which are very necessary for bees—do just exactly what the flowers want them to do above everything—_to carry pollen_ from some anthers to the pistil. This they do without knowing what a great kindness they are bestowing upon the flowers.

They think they are just doing their duty in gathering nectar to make honey and pollen for bee-flour, but in dipping their heads down into the deep calyx where the nectar is stored, they get their furry bodies covered with pollen, and when they come out of that flower, or go to visit another, they spread pollen all over the stigma of the pistil! And when the pollen is spread on the stigma of the pistil, somehow, in some wonderful way it sinks down through the style into the ovary where the dear little seed baby is born.

If you cut open an old bloom going to seed you will see a number of seed babies in the ovary from which they will fall when they are ripe.

BUMBLE BEES HELP

Sometimes flowers are very particular as to just what insect shall do this work for them. For instance, the clover hides its nectar too deep for the honey bee’s tongue to reach; so the bumble bee and butterfly do most of the work of pollination for the clovers.

The little butter-and-eggs flower depends upon bumble bees, too, to bring pollen to the pistil, for she closes the nectar holder with so tight a lip that the weight of the honey bee is not heavy enough to open it.

ANIMALS WOULD STARVE WITHOUT THIS WORK OF INSECTS

By the way, it is a dreadful thing to kill bumble bees. They do the work of pollenizing for many a deep-cupped flower, and _without their aid and the aid of some such insects, everybody would starve_, for there would be no seed and no new plants to take the place of the old ones as they died, and animals and birds and mankind would perish of starvation.

MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES HELP, TOO

This work of pollenizing depends for the most part on bees, but many butterflies and moths feed on nectar in the same way. Most moths’ tongues are very long, and many long-necked flowers depend upon them to bring pollen on their soft, furry bodies to the pistils. The moths fly at night, so many long-necked flowers, like the moonflowers, do not open their blooms nor shed their sweet odors in the day time, but wait to show their sweetness until their favorite insect is flying.

Now you see that Beauty Butterfly and night moths are not just a gorgeous bit of living color. Such moths and Beauty Butterfly accomplish much good.

“Well, Miss Gardener said she lay out in the hammock, just as you are lying, Mary Frances, studying just what I have told you, only in a much more difficult way, and she kept saying over and over to herself, ‘Corolla, calyx, sepals, stamens, pistil,’ in order that she might know her lesson, when all at once her book began to slip out of her hand and she could not seem to cling to it at all. She heard the dull thud as it hit the ground.”

“Are you ready?” asked a strange buzzy voice. “I’m always in a hurry, you see. Are you quite ready?”

“I’m ready,” answered Miss Gardener; “ready for anything; but please, where are you, who are you, and what am I to be ready for?”

And again the buzzy voice spoke: “Ready to go with me?”

Miss Gardener looked around toward where the buzzy voice seemed to come from. There, sitting on a rose nearby, was a honey bee.

“Oh,” gasped Miss Gardener, “I’m—that is—I——”

“You’re afraid!” buzzed the bee, coming near her. “You’re afraid I’ll sting you!” She laughed. “We never sting unless we think we need to take care of ourselves or our lovely children.”

“Oh,” apologized Miss Gardener, “I—that is, I—I’m ready, Mrs. Bee.”

“All right, then,” buzzed the bee, flying nearer. “Are you certain you’re not afraid?”

“I’m not,” declared Miss Gardener; but she said a little shiver went down her spine.

“Very well,” buzzed the bee, coming straight at her and hitting her between the eyes.

Miss Gardener tried to scream; before she could do so she had the queerest sensation. Before she could think whether the bee had stung or not, she began to sink down, down, down, down, down, down, until she was just the size of the bee.

“You’ve wondered so long,” said the bee, “about what a beehive was like inside, I am going to take you on a visit to ours. But we must hurry, or I shall not get my duty to the hive people done. Besides, you cannot enter without some pollen or nectar; so here, stop and get a bit.”

“How can I?” began Miss Gardener.

“Fly over to that rose I was on,” said the bee. Miss Gardener flew and gathered some pollen, and, together, Mrs. Honey Bee and she winged their way over to the hive.