THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



plus of honey may be in another wholly valueless. In the 

 Rocky Mountain highlands alfalfa is the main reliance of the 

 apiarist and no other honey-plant can compare with it, but 

 east of the Mississippi River it is in most localities totally de- 

 void of nectar. In the prairie States white clover is easily 

 the foremost honey-plant, but in France one may ride for 

 miles and not see a bee on the flowers. The flowers of the vine 

 are in many places nectarless, but in others are reported to be 

 nectariferous. Thousands of pounds of buckwheat-honey 

 are annually produced in New York State, but farther west it 

 is of little or no value. The flow of nectar in buckwheat is 

 intermittent; in the morning it is active and the flowers are 

 diligently visited by bees, but in the afternoon it ceases entirely 

 and the bees remain idle in the hives. During the latter part 

 of the day there is a great sea of white, fragrant flowers with 

 hardly a bee on them. The secretion of nectar is evidently 

 greatly influenced by soil and climate, and probably other 

 factors, so that the loss of this function in certain plant genera 

 is not at all surprising. 



Wind -pollinated flowers, although they do not produce 

 nectar, cannot be regarded strictly as pollen- flowers, since 

 they rely on the wind for pollination. In early spring, honey- 

 bees, hard-pressed to obtain pollen for brood-rearing, often, 

 however, by thousands gather pollen from the alders, hazel- 

 nuts, elms, hickories, and walnuts. Later in the season they 

 may resort to the spindles of Indian corn and the green flowers 

 of the ragweeds. Flies and beetles also feed on the pollen of 

 rushes, grasses, and sedges. 



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