Ogle also remarks, smear with pollen the whole back
and sides of an entering humble-bee in a useless manner; but the anthers
twist round and place themselves longitudinally before they dehisce. The
lower and inner side of the mouth of the corolla is thickly clothed with
hairs, and these collect so much of the fallen pollen that I have seen
the under surface of a humble-bee thickly dusted with it; but this can
never be applied to the stigma, as the bees in retreating do not turn
their under surfaces upwards. I was therefore puzzled whether these
hairs were of any use; but Mr. Belt has, I think, explained their use:
the smaller kinds of bees are not fitted to fertilise the flowers, and
if they were allowed to enter easily they would steal much nectar, and
fewer large bees would haunt the flowers. Humble-bees can crawl into the
dependent flowers with the greatest ease, using the "hairs as footholds
while sucking the honey; but the smaller bees are impeded by them, and
when, having at length struggled through them, they reach the slippery
precipice above, they are completely baffled." Mr. Belt says that he
watched many flowers during a whole season in North Wales, and "only
once saw a small bee reach the nectary, though many were seen trying in
vain to do so." (3/5. 'The Naturalist in Nicaragua' 1874 page 132. But
it appears from H. Muller 'Die Befruchtung der Blumen' 1873 page 285,
that small insects sometimes succeed in entering the flowers.
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