392 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



bloom for over 6 weeks, and will bloom for several 

 weeks vet. The amount of honey in each flower is 

 small, but, as in the white clover, the supply is con- 

 stant and the quality good. Here, uninvited and 

 without coaxing', it has taken its stand with our best 

 honey producing- plants. The only cultivation I give 

 it is, to clear away other shrubs and timber; it takes 

 possession, and holds it ever after. I believe it will 

 pay for cultivation. I have never heard it mention- 

 ed as a honey plant, or seen it outside of this state. 

 If you do not have it in Ohio, I will send you a few 

 plants, by mail, this autumn, for your honey garden, 

 or more by express, if you say so. The plant is very 

 ornamental in winter, on account of its profusion 

 of crimson berries. I prize it for its honey, and the 

 forage it furnishes in winter for stock. Plants can 

 be produced from seed, but plants that will bloom 

 the first season are better. W. C. Smith. 



Warsaw, Mo., Aug. 9, 1879. 



Answer by Prof. W. J. Beal of Michigan 

 Agricultural College. 



This is Symphoricarpus vulgaris (Indian currant, 

 or coral-berry). I received it, a few days ago, from 

 another source in the southwest. The sender said 

 it was a fine bee plant. It is a plant of the honey- 

 suckle family. 



Editor of Gleanings :— It appears to this corre- 

 spondent that you aie making- a big noise about that 

 "Simpson Honey Plant," but 1 tell you, and you can 

 tell "all the world and"— the people of Australia, 

 that if you had stood within ear-shot of the "Thomp- 

 son Honey Shrub," yesterday, after the rain (Sun- 

 day though it was), it would have humbled your 

 ideas of jour plant. I have visited a pretty large 

 apiary with the "Simpson" contiguous, and the 

 "blessed bees" did not make half as much noise 

 about it as my one-horse concern makes over the 

 Symphoricarpus. Then, too, once planted, it will 

 take care of itself, being about as self asserting as 

 the Canada thistle, a little more useful, and a great 

 deal more beautiful. After the bees are done with 

 it, its gorgeous racemes of crimson berries are not 

 excelled by any shrub of the Northern states, and 

 at a season, too (up to the holidays), when decorative 

 plants are wanted. 



I have the Clethra alnifolia on the place, but will 

 not extend its culture for bee forage. To the Sym- 

 phoricarpus I shall give the freedom of the ranch, 

 as long as I keep bees. I supnose, being the first to 

 notice it, after the "Blessed Bees," as a honey plant, 

 I have the usual privilege of naming- it the "Thomp- 

 son Honey Shrub," or "Honey Shrub" without the 

 Thompson, if you will, this being a little more ex- 

 pressive, from a bee-keeper's stand point, than its 

 specific name, Symphoricarpus vulgaris, which 

 would perhaps be a jaw-breaker to some good bee 

 man or bee woman. G.W.Thompson. 



Stelton, N. J., Aug. 1879. 



A NEW SPECIES OF .MILKWEED. 



Enclosed are the leaves and flowers of a plant, a 

 single specimen of which I found several years ago, 

 growing wild on rolling and rather dry ground. I 

 transplanted it to my dooryard, where it has contin- 

 ued to thrive and blossom every year, and is very 

 much frequented by bees. It grows about 2V 2 ft. 

 high and branches out into an umbrella shaped top, 

 which, from July 1st to about the 10th of Aug., is 

 covered with bloom, of a dark orange color. It has 

 a straight, spindle shaped root, snow while, 3 in. in 

 diameter at the surface of the ground, and ~Z\i in. at 

 a depth of 2 1-2 feet. J. S. Pierce. 



Granger, Medina Co., O., Aug. 1879. 



We sent the specimen to Prof. Beal who 

 kindly replies as follows : 



This is a species of Asclepias (milkweed) which is 

 every where well known as good for bees, though 

 this species I have never met before. 



Ag. Col., Lansing, Mich. W. J. Be\l. 



germander. 

 I send you a honev plant which blooms from 3 to 4 

 weeks. Please send me the name of if. 

 East Mo., Aug-. 11, '79. W. F. Stewart. 



Answer by Prof. W. J. Beal. 

 This is Teucrium Canadense (Germander), and 

 comes tome several times a year, as a good plant 



for honey. It thrives along river bottoms, and is 

 freely visited by bees. The plant is quite common 



at Lansing, Michigan. It belongs to the mint family, 

 a large one, all or nearly all of which are good bee 

 plants; as, catmint, peppermint, spearmint, pyenan- 

 themum, thyme, sage, bergamot, skull cap, hoar- 

 hound, motherwort, and others. Wherever they 

 grow in quantity, as all of them do in places, there 

 bees thrive. 



do pure queens ever change to 

 hybrids; 



A VEXED QUESTION. 



8' SEE J. H. Pierce, on page 315, of Gleanings, 

 speaks of having bought of you a tested queen 



J that was not pure; and you say that you can 

 not account for her producing hybrids, unless it was 

 after she was shipped and that you are not sure 

 that this is possible. This is something that has 

 puzzled me for the last month; and I do not see how 

 such a thing could be, yet I know it is sometimes 

 the case, as I have just had such a queen. I com- 

 menced this spring to Italianize what black bees I 

 had, and my plan was to get my queens fertilized 

 before there were any black drones flying. I had 

 drones flying the 28th of March, and my first queen 

 was hatched the 11th of April, and her brood was as 

 pure as any I have (I clipped one of her wings after 

 she was tested, as I do all my queens). Well, she 

 proved to be a very prolific queen, and her brood 

 was pure till about the middle of July, when I notic- 

 ed quite a number of hybrids in the hive. I looked 

 up the queen and found her all right, with the same 

 old clipped wing. 



I kept her till the 10th of Aug., when nearly all 

 her hatching brood were hybrids. So that proves, 

 to my mind, that the queen you sold to Pierce was 

 pure when you tested her. I confess, I would have 

 been very slow to take up with the idea of her be- 

 coming hybrid after shipping, if I had not had such 

 a case myself. Do you think she could have met a 

 drone the second time, and that without being able 

 to fly? 



I have 19 colonies of bees, all Italians, and I will 

 venture the assertion that I have as tine a lot of 

 queens as there is in the state. I have saved no 

 queen, unless she was very large and prolific, and 

 the consequence is that all my hives are very strong, 

 and in the best condition for the fall bloom, in which 

 I ever saw bees. When I take a frame out of the 

 hive, it is so full of bees I have to drive them from 

 one place to see if all is right and if there are any 

 queen cells; and I often find them, even at this time 

 of the summer. L. R. Jackson. 



Fairland, Ind., Aug. 16, 1879. 



I do not believe, friend J., that the queen 

 was fertilized after she had been laying and 

 her wing had been clipped, but I think sbe 

 was fertilized the second time when she first 

 took her flight, as it has been proved by 

 many testimonies that such is often the case. 

 She probably met a black drone at one trip, 

 and an Italian at another. The spermatozoa 

 received from the Italian drone was used 

 first, and, when that was exhausted, the 

 queen was, virtually, a hybrid queen, and 

 no more. This will explain why we have 

 queens that produce bees the greater part of 

 which are beautifully marked, while, once 

 in a great while, there will be one almost 

 black ; also queens that produce both pure 

 blacks and pure Italians. I admit this is 

 somewhat of a conjecture, but I offer it until 

 we can have some better explanation of these 

 well known facts. 



