Nor is it easy to see how, on the principles of evolution alone, this faculty can have been acquired; for the remarkable point, and one apparently inexplicable on the development-theory, is this, that the two portions of the community alone concerned in the actual propagation of the race are absolutely without the special endowment of which we have been speaking, at least so far as the particular directions of its manifestation just mentioned enable us to conclude. The queen among bees, unlike her representative among wasps, is quite unable to perform any of the processes preliminary to egg-laying. She cannot secrete wax or build comb. She cannot fly abroad to collect honey. She has no means of gathering pollen. She can neither procure nor use propolis. So helpless, indeed, is she, that, bereft of attendants, she is unable to feed herself sufficiently to maintain life. The drones, if not so absolutely helpless, are equally incapable of all constructive work, of the power of collecting honey, making wax, building comb, guarding the stores against robbers, or even tending and nurturing the young brood. We see, then, the endowments of instinct in all their higher manifestations are conferred alone on the members of the community who cannot transmit them to posterity. Nor does the fact of the occasional appearance of fertile workers at all explain away the difficulty; for, as has been shown, such abnormal mothers produce only male offspring, which never inherit the special faculties of the undeveloped females, and consequently cannot transmit what they have never possessed.
If asked what solution of the difficulty we are prepared to offer, we confess, with satisfaction, to the retention of the undisproved theory that the Creator has, in His own inscrutable, but all-beneficent, way, specially gifted these insects with powers of a kind adapted to the highest welfare of their race, as we also believe He has given to other orders of beings, from the ant up to man, and on to angels, faculties to be used, not only for the benefit of the individual, the species, or the genus, but for the harmonious working of the universe He has called into being. To those, at least, who rejoice to believe in a personal God, who find an atheistic cosmos the most unthinkable of notions; who see a thousand mysteries inexplicable on any theory of unintelligent "natural selection," the study of the honey-bee provides reason for, and evokes the sentiment of, sublime adoration of an infinite First Cause, i.e. the Deity.
CHAPTER XXVI.
BEES IN RELATION TO FLOWERS.
Connection of Plant-life and Insect-life—Reproduction of Flowers—Intervention of Insects—Hermaphrodite Flowers—Cross-fertilisation—Cucumbers, Melons, &c.—Poplars—Firs—Epilobium or Willow Herb—Cincerarias—Darwin's Experiments—Nasturtium—Foxglove—Figwort—Salvia—Heath—Strawberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry—Apple and Pear—Altruism of Bees.
The connection between insects and the plant-world, and the mutual benefits they render, have long been known to man. While the one kingdom is almost entirely dependent on the other for sustenance, and this, not only as regards food, but for dwelling-places also: the organic, but (so far as we can judge) inanimate, one of the two, requires the aid of the animate for the continued reproduction of many of its members.
It would lead us too far from the subject of this book to enter at all fully into the question of the complete interaction of plant-life and insect-life. In dealing with the relations of bees to flowers we shall, therefore, confine our remarks almost entirely to the important part played by these creatures in the reproduction of certain kinds of plants.
It may, perhaps, be necessary, previously to entering on this subject, to say that in flowers we have organs analogous to, though widely differing from, those indicative of sex in the animal world. The functions, at least, are the same; and the combined action of the two sets is essential to the propagation of the race by seed. Unless pollen from the anthers is conveyed to the pistil, and, germinating there, imparts to the ovules vivifying nourishment, no seed will come to perfection, or will be capable of growing. While most flowers are hermaphrodite, i.e. produce both stamens (or anther-bearers) and pistils, it happens, in not a few instances, that certain flowers have anthers, and no pistils: while others, on the same plant, have pistils, but no anthers. Again, the antheriferous and pistiliferous flowers, in certain species, are found on different individual plants, so that, unless some agency were provided for the transference of the pollen, these species would inevitably die out. Now, the two means for this conveyance are the wind and insects. It is evident that the former can have only a very limited action, and would need for its effective service a great abundance of any particular flower, lest the fructifying grains should become the mere sport of the breezes, and fail to reach their all-important goal, and accomplish their all-needful function.
Moreover, in many cases, the position of the anthers in the flower entirely excludes the possibility of any currents of air assisting in the carrying of the pollen-dust to the pistil of the same or of different flowers. Hence there is a necessity for the intervention of insects; and that they may be induced to visit such flowers, and unconsciously effect the essential operation of fertilising them, nectar is secreted near the base of the stamens or the ovary, or in some position which will involve, in the gathering of it, the brushing off and conveying away of some of the pollen-grains. It is, indeed, a remarkable fact that fragrance and honey-bearing are scarcely ever associated with plants which can easily be wind-fertilised. Such flowers are, also, for the most part, inconspicuous; while those which need the agency of insects to aid in their reproduction are bright in colour, sweet in perfume, and more or less prolific in honey.
It must not be supposed, however, that even the hermaphrodite, or double-sexed, flowers are independent of the visits of bees and other insects. In all of them cross-fertilisation, as Darwin has abundantly proved,[10] is a most important factor in the continued vitality of any species, and cross-breeding gives an immense advantage in "the struggle for existence," where the conditions of life are not wholly favourable. Indeed, in many instances, special provision has been made by the Creator against self-fertilisation: in some cases, by the anthers and pistil coming to maturity, in the same flower, at different times; in others, by the placing of the stamens in such a position relatively to the stigma (or top of the pistil) that it is not possible for the pollen-grains of the one set of organs to fall on the surface of the other. It cannot but be interesting to give examples of these various facts, and so to show the marvellous and necessary connection between the two kingdoms of nature.
[10] For full and most interesting information on this point, vide Cross and Self-Fertilisation of Plants, by Charles Darwin. Murray.