NEWS NOTES 151 



Manufactured Comb Honey. For seventeen years the editor of 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture (Medina, O.) has been offering 5; 1000 reward 

 for a sample of manufactured honey in comb perfect enough to deceive the 

 ordinary purchaser. No one has claimed the reward and we may conclude 

 that the story of manufactured honey was a newspaper joke. Of course, it 

 is easy to adulterate extracted honey, but obviously it would be no easy and 

 inexpensive task to imitate closely the work ot the honey-bees in modelling 

 the comb, and then filling and capping the cells. 



Honey-Bee in America. Referring to the note on Australian bees in 

 the March number (Vol. 2, p. 116) ot this magazine, Professor Cockerell 

 states that the article was inaccurate in stating that a bee of the genus Apis, to 

 which our common hive-bee belongs, is indigenous in America. 



Ice in Plants. An interesting paper on this topic is in the February 

 Plant World. Dr. Wiegand, of Cornell University, finds that ice ordi- 

 narily forms between the cells and not in the cells of plant tissues. 



Vitality Of Buried Seeds. Bulletin 83 of the Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, brings out the following points of interest 

 in connection with elementary agriculture and school gardens: The length 

 of time seeds will retain their vitality when buried is obviously of great 

 importance in the extermination of weeds. The experiments show that seeds of 

 many of the worst weeds when plowed under will be destroyed by decay if 

 left undisturbed for some years. Most seeds of cultivated plants lose their 

 vitality quickly when buried in soil, while " weed" seeds retain their vital- 

 ity much longer. The most pernicious weeds have seeds which live long 

 when buried. Hard seeds and unhulled seeds retain their vitality longest in 

 the soil. Seeds of all kinds are best preserved in a dry and comparatively 

 cool place. Seeds buried near the surface are destroyed more quickly than 

 those planted very deep. 



Black Locust Trees. In recent years large numbers ot Robinia pseu- 

 dacacia have been planted for ornamental and economic purposes, especially 

 for railroad ties and fence posts. Its excellent qualities are rapid growth, 

 easily started, and durable wood. But according to C. A. White, of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, insect enemies make it an undesirable tree for plant- 

 ing. One insect larva tunnels the leaflets, another produces gall-like enlarge- 

 ments of the tender twigs in which eggs are deposited, and a beetle larva 

 burrows extensively in the wood of branches and trunk. All these insects 

 live only on the black locust. No practicable remedies for use on a large 

 scale are known. These facts and notes on the life-histories of the insects are 

 giyen in -Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 68, pp. 211-21 8, March, 1906. 



