82 RECIPROCAL NUTRITIVE DISJUNCTIVE SYMBIOSIS 



bees, is abundant. Honey-bees, as a rule, are unable to get nectar 

 from red clover because their mouth parts are not long enough to 

 reach it. Occasionally, in very dry years, the floral tubes of red 

 clover are short enough so that honey-bees can reach the nectar 

 and red clover fields yield an abundance of honey, but ordinarily 

 this plant is not a good honey plant. White clover ( Trifolium repens) 



Fig. 32.— Fringed gentian {Gentiana crinila). A bumble-bee flower. (From 

 The Flower and the Bee, by John H. Lovell; copyright, 1918, by Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. By permission of author and publisher.) 



on the other hand, is one of the best of honey plants wherever it 

 grows (Figs. 30 and 31). Other common bumble-bee flowers are the 

 larkspurs {Delphinium), the columbines {Aqiiilegia) , the jewelweeds 

 (Jvipatiens) , and the snapdragons {Antirrhimnn) (Fig. 32). The 

 mint family and the figwort family also contain many bee flowers. 

 In these families the pollen is deposited on the backs of the insects 

 instead of on the underside of the bod}^ as in the legume family. 



