Bead

“ BEADS.—The number of beads found in the mounds is truly surprising. They may be counted in some instances by hundreds and thousands,—each one the product of no inconsiderable amount of labor, unless our estimate of the means and facilities at the command of the makers is greatly underrated. The character of some of these beads, made of shell and enveloped in metal, has already been noticed. Others are composed of shell, worked into every variety of shape, round, oblong, and flattened ”

“ The devotees may be seen muttering their beads as they walk the streets, and in the interval of conversation in company. The rosaries of persons of fortune and rank have the beads of diamonds, pearls, rubies and emeralds. Those of the humble are strung with berries, coral, or glass beads. ”

“ Give them a handful of gorgeous glass beads, a stick of sealing-wax, or some spotted beans, and keep your pale sea-tears, milky and frozen and apt to grow sickly yellow and die if they are not cared for. ”

“ They hold a tray of beads on the lap, and with a long needle, which carries the string, they dive among the beads at one end of the tray, push it quickly through the whole mass, and bring it up and out at the other end, {217} well laden with the fascinating, many-tinted little globes. They do it as if they enjoyed it, and meanwhile they talk with each other, have a few words with the passers-by, and amuse and scold the children who play around them. ”

“ By adding to this store of beads the contents of two belts, one of which was nine inches in breadth, and so long that when placed upon the shoulders it reached to the ankles, we conclude that the greatest collection ever taken from a prehistoric mound could not compare for a moment with the treasure of this one historic chieftain.
A great deal of art is shown in the stringing and mounting of beads. The simplest form is a single strand, a twisted string of vegetable fiber, a strip of buckskin, or a bit of sinew being passed through the perforations. ”

“ Ð Bead tree (Bot.) , a tree of the genus Melia, the best known species of which (M. azedarach) , has blue flowers which are very fragrant, and berries which are poisonous.
Bead, v. t. [imp. & p.p. Beaded; p. pr. & vb. n. Beading.] To ornament with beads or beading.
Bead, v. i. To form beadlike bubbles.
Bead¶house·, Bede¶house· (?) , n. [OE. bede prayer + E. house. See Bead, n.] An almshouse for poor people who pray daily for their benefactors.
Bead¶ing, n. 1. (Arch.) Molding in imitation of beads. ”

“ Amongst the medium-sized beads, about one-fifth of an inch long, those seem to be most sought after which are variegated, or have white spots on a dark ground, but sulphur-coloured and green are likewise in good request. To every tribe alike the shape of the beads is quite a matter of indifference. ”

“ Sixteen polished, perforated stone beads, greenish color, two very large. Rare. Santa Barbara, Cal. 187 Shell Beads. Three strings of Shell Beads. Fine and perfect specimens. New Madrid Co., Mo.; Calhoun Co., Ill. and mound, Calhoun Co., Ill. 3 pcs 188 Crinoid Beads, etc. Strings Crinoid and shell beads from grave, Calhoun Co., Ill., burial mound, Pike Co., Mo. and San Miguel, Cal. 5 pcs 189 Bone Beads. Five bone beads, 3⁄8 to 11⁄4 in. (human?) . Stanley, Ark. 5 pcs 190 Shell and Glass. One small string fresh water shells, two strings of red and blue, long glass beads. ”

“ Wherever the Sunbeam falls we find life and motion; elsewhere, death and stillness. Under its influence the seed germinates, the stem sends forth branches, the leaf bursts from the bud, the flower unfolds its petals, and the fruit grows and ripens. ”

“ A bean is the best type of the whole structure. An almond out of its shell, a peach-kernel, and an apple-pip are also clear and perfect, though varied types.
5. The husk, or seed-vessel, is seen in perfect simplicity of type in the pod of a bean, or the globe of a poppy. There are, I believe, flowers in which it is absent or imperfect; and when it contains only one seed, it may be so small and closely united with the seed it contains, that both will be naturally thought of as one thing only. ”

“ They climb to the air and the sunlight again in grasses and ferns and airy little plants. They blossom into flowers, eye-gladdening, honey-yielding, color-mad clumps of bloom, from which not alone the bee drinks sweets. ”

“ Do you know the wild partridge-pea of the pine barrens, that scatters its seeds with a faint report when the pods are touched? There is in this land a red bud which has burst thundering into crimson bloom, scattering seeds o' death to the eight winds. And every seed breeds a battle, and every root drinks blood! ”

“ And this pollen, for the bee-bread And as food for young, they use, Mixed with honey and with water,-- Swallowed and disgorged like juice By the nurses, who digest it Partly, for the larvae-food, Taking care that each shall have it, Just according to the brood.
{207}
Now we'll watch and see them working; See them brush off pollen-dust; See them, too, disgorge the honey, Into cells the sweetness thrust. Children, with your useful fingers, Hands and arms and feet and head, Do not let the bees surpass you, Making honey, nay, nor bread. ”

“ The leaf, the bark, and the wood of the plant are all coarse, in comparison to the flower. Now, as nothing is made in vain, there must be some reason for this. The leaves and bark, as well as wood, of plants, all have vessels through which sap flows, and this sap nourishes, sustains, and builds up the plant, as our blood does our bodies. ”

“ After hovering above the nectary, the bee has only to descend toward it, when her leg, touching against one of the hair-triggers of the spring trap, pop! goes the little anther-gun, discharging pollen from its bores as it flies upward. ”

“ When the wheat is shorn and the burns run brown, And the moon shines clear at night; When wains are heaped with rustling corn, And the swallows take their flight; When the trees begin to cast their leaves, And the birds, new-feathered, sing— Then comes the bee to the glancing spot Where the lilies used to spring! ”

“ I want to say, that in speaking of entertaining the little feathered angel birds, in my flower garden, I also entertain them in beneficent ways unseen by me. For bees and birds are necessary and valuable for your flowers. The bees have panniers on their legs where they carry the pollen to the hives, and many a tiny bit of pollen falls from these well-packed panniers to fall into the heart of the blossom from which the bee is gathering nectar. ”

“ The illustrations for “Queer Fruits from the Bee’s Basket,” with its decorated initial, showing just the right bee, investigating just the right flower; the laden bees hastening from the clump of bushes in the foreground to the distant hives behind the farmhouse; and finally the sketch at the close, of a group of the odd forms of pollen-dust which the microscope reveals;—these are all examples of a fancy which only serves to illumine, throw light upon, the fact, but never to distort it or to pervert it. ”

“ The bees are the most useful of all, and we now see what service they render to plants, for when a little worker dips into a flower in search of nectar, her body becomes covered with pollen. It may be that the next flower she comes to is one in which the stigma is ripe, so that the bee, as she pushes her way in, rubs her pollen-covered body against it, [111] and thus the flower is fertilised by pollen from another plant. When a bee is nectar-gathering, you will notice that she always keeps to one kind of plant on each journey, just as the pollen gatherers do. ”

“ Bees produce honey, which they lay up for winter consumption; wax, of which they form their cells; and a substance called bee-bread, which they extract chiefly from the pollen of flowers, and which they use for feeding their young. ”

“ When the worker bee gets the pollen from Mr. Iris all over his hair and then goes on to get pollen from Miss Iris, the hair is going to scatter the pollen for her, that’s going to make the good seed come, 'cause the bees do the flowers’ courting for them. That’s a reason besides honey as to why bees are so useful. ”

“ The humble-bee brushes off the pollen onto its hairy coat from the upper flowers of one raceme and carries it direct to the lowest flowers of another, where the viscid stigmas are open and ready to receive it. ”

“ There are some plants, like the aloe, which bear but one flower, and sometimes only at the end of a hundred years. They prepare their sap, which has waited so long, and then from the heart of the plant issues a long straight stem, like a tree whose regular branches look like forged iron. ”

“ In gathering pollen from flowers, bees are doing more than merely providing for their own community. Whilst humming through our gardens they are assisting to propagate our flowers, and their merry buzz in our orchards indicates that the blossoms of spring will in autumn fulfil their promise by abundance of fruit. ”

“ When a bee enters a flower the hairs are sure to come into contact with the pollen, and by means of the spikes the grains are entangled and held secure. The hairs of the queen and the drone are not so numerous as those of the worker, because these bees do not gather pollen. ”

“ The very forest and herbage, the pellicle of the earth, must acquire a bright color, an evidence of its ripeness, as if the globe itself were a fruit on its stem, with ever a cheek toward the sun.
Flowers are but colored leaves, fruits but ripe ones. The edible part of most fruits is, as the physiologist says, "the parenchyma or fleshy tissue of the leaf," of which they are formed. ”

“ To-day we passed one of these lofty trees bearing above twenty bees’ nests, among them four old ones 52 white with wax.1 As the country is full of tapangs, in which alone do the bees build their nests, the stories of the great amount of wax formerly procured in this district may be true. Why do the honey-bees generally build on one particular tree? Its being the finest in the forest is no good reason, perhaps there is something enticing in the bark. ”

“ Every part is flower, (or fruit,) such is its superfluity of color,—stem, branch, peduncle, pedicel, petiole, and even the at length yellowish purple-veined leaves. Its cylindrical racemes of berries of various hues, from green to dark purple, six or seven inches long, are gracefully drooping on all sides, offering repasts to the birds; and even the sepals from which the birds have picked the berries are a brilliant lake-red, with crimson flame-like reflections, equal to anything of the kind,—all on fire with ripeness. ”

“ The bees, we are erroneously told, search for wax "upon all sorts of trees and plants, but especially the rocket, the simple poppy, and in general all kinds of flowers. They amass it with their hair, with which their whole body is invested. ”

“ There are many persons, now in this noisy city pent, who frequently remember the days of childhood when, among pastures of clover or amidst flowery heath and woodlands, they listened to the cheerful hum of bees. ”

“ The service that bees perform to flowers is a subject that has attracted much attention of late years. As every one knows, or should know, a flower has its stamens and pistils, which are respectively its male and female organs, and the pollen contained in the anthers, or little knobs on the summits of the stamens, must be conveyed to the pistils, or no seed will be produced. ”

“ A, outside of Bean; (h) black scar showing where the bean was attached to the pod; (r) ridge made by young root; B, bean split open; (n) nurse leaves; (p) baby plant; (a) scar where the baby plant was separated from the nurse leaf on that side.
In the case of maize and corn, however, you will find that the seed does not split into two equal parts like the bean, but that the young plant lies at one side of the [10] seed, and a solid white mass fills the rest of the space (see fig. 5) . There are also differences in the seedlings which you will notice when they begin to grow. ”

“ Soak some seeds of broad bean (or pea) and maize (or wheat) for twenty-four hours. Plant some in damp sawdust. 2. What do you see when you open a bean seed? 3. Pick off the little baby plant, and try to draw it big. 4. Cut down through the centre (flat side) of a maize seed. Try to make out the little seed plant and the food store. 5. Every third day dig up a growing seed and draw it. Put the date beneath each drawing. Keep your drawings carefully.
30 V.—HOW A PLANT GROWS.
Every day the boys watched their buds and seeds bursting into life. ”

“ Now you know how the coat came by its scar, for the scar was the spot which showed where the bean had been broken from the pod.
"What do you mean by growing?" said the other voice, which came from a large red stone.
"Why," said the bean, "don't you know what growing means? I thought every thing knew how to grow. You see, when I grow, my root goes down into the soil to get moisture, and my stem goes up into the light to find heat. Heat and moisture are my food and drink. ”

“ Bees bear the fructifying matter from one sex of flowers to the other, but they confine their attention to one kind of flower during each excursion; and the careful observer may see how the colour of the pollen on the bodies of the bees will vary from yellow to red and brown, according to the kind of flowers from which it has been gathered. The gathering of pollen, its use by the nursing bees, and the storing of it in the cells, afford to the bee-keeper opportunity for observations of exceeding interest. ”

“ Barley, oats, and rye, the turnip and the beet, the beetroot, the carrot, the pumpkin, and so many other vegetable products, leave us in the same perplexity; their point of departure is unknown to us, or at most suspected behind the impenetrable cloud of the centuries. ”