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.

Graphic animation to show how pollination takes place. Petals wither and are thrown off by the seed case. This is seen through time lapse. Bean pod peels open and beans shoot off at different angles. The bean seed is shown in C/U. A shoot comes off the base. Chink in the outer armour pointed out - a tiny hole. When wet, the case of the bean crinkles up to provide enough suction to draw water into the hole. Illustrated through time lapse. "The runner bean is the Samson of the plant world". A bean embedded in concrete splits it apart as it expands. Time lapse of growing cycle of various beans. Bean winds around a beanpole. It spins wildly when it reaches the top of the pole. Flowers open.

Note: 2 x combined prints exist - check for best quality.