191 



American l^ee Journal 



)>=.^^ I 



dicated by the number of degrees 

 turned ; if nearly to the bottom on the 

 right side, a super was needed without 

 delay, etc. 



By wdlking out in front of a row of 

 hives thus marked, I could see 15 or 20 

 steps away where 1 was most needed, 

 and what for. It seems to me just the 

 marking system for my system of keep- 

 ing bees. 



Mesilla Park, New Mex. 



No. 1.— Heartsease and Span- 

 ish-Needle 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



I saw in the Kebruary number of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal that Spanish-needle is a 

 great honey-plant; and that heartsease is 

 also. I am desirous of learning more about 

 them. There is no Spanish-needle around 

 here, at least I never saw any of it. Nor is 

 there any heartsease, unless it is tlie com- 

 mon weed we call smartweed; 1 rather think 

 that is it. but I am not sure of it. I haye seen 

 bees work on the smartweed. but they seem 

 to gather but yery little honey from it. 

 Heartsease may resemble it in some re- 

 spects, and not be it: I am not sure about it. 

 Does the Spanish-needle grow seed? and 

 does it grow from seed ? If it does, can you 

 tell me where I can get the seed? 



I am going to move my bee-yard to a place 

 20 miles from here, where I will have an un- 

 limited range for them. I will be 5 miles 

 from any other bee-keeper. I can there keep 

 100 colonies, and more, if I can care for them. 

 There is a fine flow from fruit-bloom and 

 clover, raspberries, blackberries, poplar 

 and basswood. buckwheat, goldenrod and 

 aster. I can also get a good stand of Spanish- 

 needle and heartsease, as there is consider- 

 able land that is not cultivated. If these 

 plants can be grown from seed, and if they 

 will grow here. I will endeavor to have them 

 sown and see how they will do. 



I saw an account of white sage as a honey- 

 plant. Where can I obtain that seed? I 

 want to make the place a first-class bee- 

 country, as I think I will spend the remain- 

 der of my days there. I have always liked 

 bees, and enjoy handling them. Any infor- 

 mation in regard to honey-producing plants 

 will be very thankfully received by me. 



New Jersey. Wm. E. Hoisel. 



Heartsease and Spanish-needle are 

 the best wild blossoms for the pro- 

 duction of fall honey along the Miss- 

 issippi River. Perhaps this statement 

 could be truthfully extended to the en- 

 tire Mississippi Valley, but as both 

 plants thrive best in w^et lands, the low 

 lands of the Mississippi and Missouri 

 Rivers are also their best home. 



"Heartsease" is to some extent a 

 misnomer. Gray's Botany and the Cen- 

 tury Dictionary both agree in giving 

 the name " heartsease " to a violet — 

 I'io/ii tricolor — the pansy. The Century 

 adds; " In some parts of the United 

 States the common persicaria, peach- 

 wort, lady's thumb or smartweed. Poly- 

 gonum Pcrsuaria." It is to this genus 

 of plants that we refer when we speak 

 of the " heartsease, smartweed, knot- 

 weed, persicaria, etc." According to 

 the Century, there are about 50 species 

 of the persicaria, which I do not doubt 

 judging from the numerous different 

 varieties which occur on low lands. 

 ■Phe Century devotes to this genus of 

 plants a half column which is instruc- 

 tive to peruse. 



The name "Polygonum Persicaria" 

 is a very good description of the plants, 

 when we refer to the etymology. "Poly- 

 gonum" is derived from two Greek 

 words " polus," signifying "many," and 

 " gonu," " knee, knot," a plant with many 

 knots, each joint of the stem looking 



indeed like a knot. The other name, 

 "persicaria," is from the Latin "persi- 

 carius," a peach-tree. This name was 

 given to the plant from the resemblance 

 of its leaves to the leaves of a peach- 

 tree in their shape. 



The ordinary persicaria of the fields 

 is a sweet plant which cattle eat readily. 

 It does not grow very plentifully on 

 grazing lands owing to this fact, for it 

 is readily destroyed. It thrives mainly 

 in wet stubble-fields after the wheat, 

 rye or oats have been removed. The 

 low lands of the Mississippi River, 

 which overflow more or less periodi- 

 cally, produce it in abundance. I have 

 often seen it take the place of crops 

 when the latter are destroyed by the 

 June rise of the Mississippi, and then it 

 grows so luxuriantly that I have seen it 

 attain a height of 5 feet or more. Dur- 

 ing the summer of 1880, the Mississippi 

 River covered the lowlands to such an 

 extent that it broke through several of 

 the levees built to protect the crops. 

 Thousands of acres in Hancock and 

 Adams County, in Illinois, were over- 



Heartsease. 



flowed, and the crops entirely destroyed, 

 for the water remained on the land un- 

 til well into July. At the same time 

 our uplands were burning up with an 

 unusual drouth, and the bees that were 

 located on the hills were threatened 

 with starvation. The combs were ab- 

 solutely dry in August. I took occa- 

 sion of this to try migratory bee-keep- 

 ing. 



About Aug. 15 we transported to the 

 low lands below Warsaw, 105 colonies, 

 traveling with our teams during the 

 night time in order to avoid endanger- 

 ing the life of our bees by day confine- 

 ment. The bees which were thus 

 brought in the midst of thousands of 

 acres of heartsease gathered a splendid 

 crop of light-colored honey. Within 

 15 minutes after their release from the 

 hive we could see them on the flowers 

 in every direction. These weeds were 

 so thrifty that they stood as high as the 

 backs of our horses — a perfect sea of 



blossoms. I never saw bees in such 

 rush. They appeared as if intoxicated 

 by their good luck. 



The heartsease is, however, not gen- 

 erally regarded as a first-class honey- 

 plant. Dr. Miller, in his " Forty Years 

 Among the Bees," gives a very good 

 cut of it, page 171, but says on page 

 122: 



" The summer of ito2 was very wet. and for 

 the first time in my observation heartsease 

 was busily worked upon by the bees." 



This is certainly not a very good 

 recommendation, coming from so ex- 

 perienced a man as Dr. Miller. But 

 the Doctor is not located where this 

 plant is most abundant or successful. 

 On the other hand, the " A B C of Bee 

 Culture " says of the heartsease that it 

 yields "in Nebraska and other States 

 in that section, immense quantities of 

 honey." This work cites a Nebraska 

 bee-keeper who harvested an average 

 of 2.')0 pounds per colony one year 

 from this source. Our own experience 

 with it has been very favorable, al- 

 though the plant is not a regular pro- 

 ducer of large crops. I believe, with 

 Dr. Miller, that it takes moist seasons 

 to get the maximum from its blossoms. 



As there are a number of different 

 species, varying with the soil, the 

 climate and the season, there is also a 

 variation in the grade of honey that it 

 produces. For this reason contradic- 

 tory reports have been made regarding 

 the color of the honey. Some people 

 have held it to be as white as white 

 clover honey, while others reported it 

 as amber. In our own case we found 

 it slightly darker than white clover, but 

 of a light pinkish tint. I believe its 

 color would be reported upon more 

 favorably by the average apiarist, were 

 it not that its bloom often runs into 

 the blooming time of Spanish-needles, 

 and the two kinds are often mixed. 



There is but little doubt that the Per- 

 sicaria, in one species or another, is to 

 be found in many parts of the United 

 States. The botanical works mention 

 some species as native of the New Eng- 

 land States, others as growing from 

 Michigan to Kentucky. A number of 

 species are native of Europe, and a cul- 

 tivated species. Polygonum Orientate, 

 produces very large leaves and beauti- 

 ful clusters of flowers. The bees work 

 on it regularly. 



One of the peculiarities of our hearts- 

 ease, as of the smartweed, is that the 

 petals do not fall after the seed has 

 formed, but retain their color, white or 

 pink, until long after the seed has 

 formed and ripened, so that you may 

 find a blackened ripe seed within a 

 corolla that to all appearances is fit to 

 yield honey. 



The smartweed is not to be consid- 

 ered a good honey-producer; although 

 the bees work on it at times, they do 

 not appear to stop on its blossoms 

 long. Its name is derived from its 

 juice, and for that same reason it has 

 also received the incongruous denomi- 

 nations of " culrage " and " arse-smart " 

 (Century Dictionary). Its botanical 

 name is J^olygottum acre. Another va- 

 riety is Folygoiiiiin hydropifer — water- 

 pepper. 



Outside of the Persicaria there are 

 other honey-producers in the family of 

 Polygonaceas, the leading of which is 

 our buckwheat. The observing bee- 



