1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



265 



g;ir<lc<l ;is hiiiicy plants, anil are so 

 listed in the Honey I'laiits of Ne- 

 braska, Init 1 have never seen a 

 honeybee ol)taiii the nectar in the 

 normal way. But in order to get 

 the nectar more quickly, bumblebees 

 bite holes in the spurs, and then 

 many honeybees resort to the flow- 

 ers and suck the nectar through 

 these punctures. Our wild columbine 

 has scarlet tlowers which are yellow 

 inside, or rarely all over. It is vis- 

 ited by hunmiing-birds as well as 

 by bumblebees. (.Fig. 3). 



The snapdragon, with its many col- 

 ored varieties, is anotlier bumblebee 

 flower widely cultivated in gardens. 

 So firmly are tlie lips closed together 

 that the smaller bees cannot force 

 them apart, and thus the nectar is 

 protected for the rightful guests. 

 But as the flowers grow older the 

 lips often part slightly, and then the 

 smaller bees can gain an entrance. 

 The great size of the corolla permits 

 the largest bumblebee to creep whol- 

 ly within it. 



Another common bumblebee flower 

 is the garden nasturtium. The lower 

 part of each petal is marked with 

 red, which serves as a guide to the 

 honey; while the claws of the lovver 

 petals are fringed with hairs, which 

 prevent w-ater running into the spur. 

 Honeybees cannot reach the nectar,- 

 although they sometimes attempt to 

 do so. Occasionally they gather pol- 

 len from the anthers, which are fully 

 exposed and dehisce or open one at a 

 time, rising successively before the 

 mouth of the flower. Only bumble- 

 bees with the longest tongues can 

 reach all of the nectar ; and here it 

 may be added that the tongues of the 

 various species of bumblebees vary 

 from 5-16 to 13-16 of an inch in 

 length. The spur is so tough that 

 bees cannot perforate it, although 

 they apparently sometimes make the 

 attempt. 



Frequent references may be found 

 in bee literature to the spotted ■ 

 "touch-me-not," or Impatiens bi- 

 flora, which covers acres of damp 

 land and blooms profusely. The 

 flower is shaped, as shown in the 

 figure, like a horn-of-plenty with the 



• ig. 4. leweUveed or 

 (Impatiens biflora). 

 by John H. Lovell. 



Tmich-me-not 

 Photograph 



Fig. 5. Turtlehead (Chelone glabra 

 L.) A bumblebee flower. Photo- 

 graph by John H. Lovell. 



spur bent inward beneath it. It is a 

 bumblebee flower and is very fre- 

 quently visited in the locality of the 

 writer by the wandering bumblebee 

 (Bombus vagans) and the ground 

 bumblebee (Bombus terricola). The 

 blossom is suspended horizontally 

 with the stigma and anthers lying on 

 its upper side so that when a bee en- 

 ters the corolla sac its back is dusted 

 with white pollen, as has often been 

 observed and mentioned by beekeep- 

 ers. But contrary to the general im- 

 pression, honeybees obtain little if 

 any nectar from the Impatiens, ex- 

 cept when the spurs are punctured by 

 bumblebees. (Fig. 4). 



It is a matter of some difficulty and 

 delay for bumble bees to enter the 

 flowers, and very likely short- 

 tongued workers are not able to 

 reach all the nectar, so after a little 

 time they bite holes in the spurs, out 

 of which they steal the sweet con- 

 tents. On August 10th I examined a 

 large number of flowers, but none of 

 the nectaries were punctured, and 

 they were visited normally by Bom- 

 Inis vagans at the rate of from seven 

 to twelve visits per minute. But dur- 

 ing the latter part of August I found 

 hundreds of spurs perforated and 

 both bumblebees and honeybees 

 gathering the nectar from these 

 punctures. (This habit led Mueller 

 to call the bumblebee an "anti-tele- 

 ologist.") A honeybee was watched 

 during 25 successive visits, and not 

 once did it even make a pretense of 

 entering the flower, but in every in- 

 stance it swung itself astride of the 

 spur, pushed its tongue through the 

 puncture, and became literally a 

 flower robber. Ten such visits may 

 be made in a minute. The Impatiens 

 is certainly rightly named. 



A typical wild bumblebee flower is 

 the turtlehead (Chelone glabra), 

 which grows along the banks of 

 streams and on wet land. The large 

 white flowers rudely mimic in form 

 the head of a turtle. Although I have 

 had them under observation for man}' 

 hours and on many different occa- 



sions, I have never seen them en- 

 tered by any insects except buml)Ie- 

 bees. Wasps and flies sometimes ex- 

 amine the lips, which arc tinged with 

 yellow, apparently looking for nec- 

 tar, but they never pass between 

 them into the corolla chamber. I 

 once placed several flower clusters 

 of the turtlehead in front of a bee- 

 hive, but they received not a single 

 visit from the many honeybees com- 

 ing and going; but in a little while, 

 notwithstanding their unusual posi- 

 tion, every blossom was examined by 

 I>uml)lcbees. The honeybees seemed 

 instinctively to know that these 

 flowers were not designed for their 

 use. (Fig. 5). 



Last summer I saw a blue meadow, 

 or one largely covered with the pur- 

 ple-blue flowers of the blue flag (Iris 

 versicolor). While bumblebees make 

 the best pollinators of this species, 

 it is not strictly a bumblebee flower, 

 since it is often visited and pollinated 

 by honeybees. In the absence of in- 

 sects it is usually self-sterile. The 

 nectar is excessively wasted by the 

 blue flag beetle, which passes its en- 

 tire life on this plant, the larvie 

 feeding on the seeds and the adult 

 beetles on the nectar; this weevil 

 sinks many holes in the nectariferous 

 tissue, from which the nectar flows 

 freely, attracting swarms of flies and 

 beetles. 



The closed gentian and the fringed 

 gentian, both of which are bumblebee 

 flowers, have funnel-formed corollas. 

 The gentians bloom in late autumn, 

 and are especially abundant in the 

 Alps, where they display great sheets 

 of blue color. The closed gentian 

 never opens, and on a cold morning 

 the temperature within the corolla 

 chamber may be several degrees 

 above that of the outside atmos- 

 phere. The fringe of hairs on the 

 edge of the corolla of the fringed 

 gentian prevents the ingress of small 

 insects. (Fig. 6). 



Other familiar bumblebee flowers 

 are the Rhododendrons and Azaleas 

 and the beautiful Rhodora canadensis, 

 which is pollinated in spring by 



Fig. 6. Fringed Gentian (Gentiana 

 crinita). Photograph by John H. 

 Lovell. 



