222 AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 



ond crop, and in hot and dry seasons, that the bees are able to store honey 

 from this source. So many widely-known men come forward with the 

 positive statement that they have been able to secure surplus honey from 

 red clover, that we can hardly question the fact that honey is sometimes 

 stored from this plant. Whether the corollas are punctured by other in- 

 sects, the tubes are shortened by drought or the nectar rises higher in the 

 tube, remains to be proven. 



RED GAURA (Gaura coccinea). 



The red gaura, also called ragged lady, is common from Montana to 

 Arizona and Texas. It is much sought by the bees for both nectar and 

 pollen. Its nectar secretion is abundant, but it is not sufficiently common 

 to be important. A good stimulant. 



RED GUM, see Eucalyptus. 

 RED-HAW, see Hawthorne. 

 RESEDA ODORATA, see Mignonette. 



RETAMA (Parkinsonia aculeata). 



Retama is a small tree common throughout southern and western 

 Texas. It has slender branches, bearing the yellow petaled flowers in ax- 

 illary racemes. It is frequently mentioned as a source of nectar by Texas 

 beekeepers. Scholl states that the bees work on it more or less all sum- 

 mer. Like many Texas shrubs, it has a habit of blooming at irregular 

 periods, from spring till September. 



RHODE ISLAND— Honey Sources of. 



The sources of honey in Rhode Island grouped in the order of their 

 appearance are willows, maples and other less numerous trees, which 

 furnish bees with the early supply of pollen and honey, so useful and so 

 needful in building up the bee population preparatory to the harvest in 

 which the beekeeper shares. 



Next come the fruit blossoms, plum, peach, cherry, pear, apple, rasp- 

 berries, huckleberries and blueberries which, when the spring is favorable, 

 yield good crops of honey. In some places, dandelions are an important 

 addition to the fruit bloom, though not always opening at the same time. 

 In several parts of the State there are large areas of locust. This blooms 

 the latter part of May, and when conditions favor, yields for about eight 

 days a heavy water-white hone\'. The clovers usually follow this, but are 

 of consequence only under favorable conditions of rainfall, save in a few 

 sections where soil conditions afford abundant moisture. 



In many sections sumacs furnish the next crop, and where they are 

 sufficiently abundant the beekeeper may rightly look for a good crop of a 

 very fair honey. 



In some of the more swampy and less settled sections, button bush, cle- 

 thra (sweet pepper bush) and clematis yield a white and highly-flavored 

 honey, that from clematis being of the very highest quality. But the yield 

 from these plants is irregular, in some years being almost absent, 



