636 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



leroiil ill ai)])(';iraiuc. I'cuplc living (here 

 ealled it Spanisii I'eedle, and seemed sur- 

 prised to hear that Spanisli-needle honey in 

 Illinois was produced from a different plant. 



In speaking of heartsease I think beenien 

 usually mean a plant of the knotweed or 

 smartweed family. Yet Webster's diction- 

 ary says it means a violet or jDansy. Even 

 Dr. Miller, that careful teacher of bee lore, 

 speaks of heai'tsease without other defini- 

 tion (p. 123, Fifty Years Among the Bees) ; 

 but he gives a cut of the plant in another 

 place which shows it to be a knotweed 

 (Pohjnonuni). It seems to be different from 

 the honey-yielding' species here, which is 

 P. Penns9jlvan>ca. We have five species of 

 polygonum growing in our township, four of 

 them quite common. Only one of them is 

 ever visited by bees. It begins to bloom a 

 little in July, but does not yield honey until 

 cooler nights come on, the flow lasting from 

 August 20 to October. I often get a large 

 crop from it when nothing else is yielding. 

 The color is very light and the flavor deli- 

 cious. Sometimes it is mixed with honey 

 from our Spani-sh needle (Bidens frondosa) 

 which injures both color and flavor. 



Boneset honey is generally described as 



<iark and laiik. I)ut our variety {Eupa- 

 toriv.in .scroLnum) seems to i)roduce a vei'y 

 good quality of honey. Wood's Botany 

 gives tlie name "boneset" to E. perfoliatum. 



There are even two kinds of dandelion to 

 I)e found. The species at Medina is evi- 

 dently a cultivated plant run wild, and is 

 quite different from the wild dandelion of 

 my locality. 



I could give many other instances of tho 

 same name being applied to widely dift'er- 

 eiit plants in different places; but it would 

 only be adding evidence to prove what is 

 already proven — that in speaking of honey- 

 plants we ought to give the Latin name if 

 possible. A \ast majority of plants have 

 no English name; and if there is one it is 

 often applied to other plants. 



It is true that the busy beeman has little 

 time for the study of botany; but it is easy 

 to identify the common floAvers with the aid 

 of a few books. In cases of doubt the state 

 experiment stations or the Department of 

 Agriculture at AYashington will hel|) us out, 

 if the plant is sent with flowers, leaves, and 

 seed-vessels. 



Newman, 111. 



ANOTHER FLORIDA BEE PASTURE 



BY F. M. BALDWIN 



Much of the testimony taken in courts 

 is worthless because the witness has not 

 learned how to see things. The man with 

 real ability to observe is rare. Last fall 

 I watched for the com.ing of the first bloom 

 on the goldenrod and rejoiced when by the 

 roadside, as I was at work surveying, I 

 caught the first glimpse of a bee on it. To 

 my rodman, who is an intelligent young 

 man, I said, " See there !" as I pointed at 

 the bee. He looked all around and said, "See 

 where?" F was almost touching the bee, and 

 T kept on saying, "See there!" It would 

 liave been ea.sy to say, "Don't you see that 

 bee?" but I Avanted to test his powers of 

 observation, and so I kept on saying, " See 

 there!" As he was not thinking bees 1 

 was at last forced to say, " See that bee on 

 that flower." 



Mr. C. H. riute has thought bees ever 

 since, as a half-grown boy. he earned his 

 first quarter l)y a day's work watching the 

 issuing of swai'ins in Wisconsin. The bee- 

 keeper was busy with his farming, and he 

 hired the boy to I'eport when a swarm had 

 issued. He has acquired the faculty of 

 observing all things that concern thase 

 wonderful insects. 



Recently he was in the country along 

 the St. John's River, Florida. He reports 

 a flora that actually seems too good to ex- 

 ist. 



Hearing of some bees for sale near San- 

 ford he went to see and buy, if he found 

 matters favorable. Of course, as a care- 

 ful man he looked closely into the flora of 

 the region before he bought. Having satis- 

 fied himself on this point he bought tin-ec 

 yards with nearly 200 colonies. San ford is 

 at the head of steamer navigation on tlie 

 far-famed St. John's. He made the trip by 

 boat down it to JacksouA-ille, closely ob- 

 serving the veoetation on its banks. He 

 brings back an interesting list of what he 

 found growing there. Below is a copy. 

 After he gave it to me I went over it Avitli 

 Mr. J. J.' Wilder, of Cordele, Ga. Wilder 

 has the "Florida habit," and winters with 

 us at Bradentown. He agi-eed with me that 

 the list was worth publication, and that 

 we could be sure it was carefully and cor- 

 rectly compiled. According to our ideas 

 there are at least Ihirtet^n first-flass ncclai- 

 secreting plants in the li.st. These are 

 put first in the list and marked with a star. 

 When I told Mr. Clute about what we had 



