Secrets Of Nature - Scarlet Runner & CO (1930)

Pro Patria presentation. Produced by British Instructional Films Ltd. Time lapse photography of the broad bean flower unfurling. It closes at the approach of rain. Its cousin - the scarlet runner - unfurls and stays open all the time. Middle of the flower is formed like a snail shell. In the flower is a brush (a pencil is used to point it out). If one of the leaves is pushed down, the brush protrudes. The brush is covered with pollen. A bee weighs down the petal, brings out the brush and gets covered with pollen. “Bertie“ - a model bee that is presumably seen in other “Secrets of Nature“ films - lands on a petal and the brush comes out. Animation. He gets pollen on his face. “Like an actor in a custard pie film, Bertie sometimes gets an eyeful“ - Bertie gets an eyeful. It is cutely comical. He moves his eyebrows up and down and scrapes the pollen off with one of his legs. “Bees find nothing funny in this kind of joke“, they learn to approach the flower sideways to avoid being prodded.