1\JVZ 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



653 



PHACELIA AS A HONFA'-PLANT. 



Friend Miller: — In looking- over your 

 Straws for June 15, pag^e 499, you ask con- 

 cerning- phacelia. More than 25 3'ears ago, 

 while I was gardener to Hon. W. Cothren, 

 one season I filled a round seven-foot bed 

 with phacelia to have the blue flowers to 

 cut, it being one of Mr. Cothren's favorite 

 color flowers; and, ver_v much to my amuse- 

 ment, also to that of Mr. Cothren, the pha- 

 celia was very seldom cut, from fear of the 

 bees that fairly swarmed upon it at all 

 times. The bed was well manured from 

 the cow-3-ard, the soil being partly of de- 

 composed trap rock. The plants were rank, 

 and clusters of flowers were fine. I saved 

 and sent to A. I. Root, some time in the 

 '70's, about a gill of clean seed, but I never 

 heard from it. But, so far as I know, it is 

 one of the most frequently visited of culti- 

 vated flowers. It is one of the few plants 

 that can be used for a whole border by a 

 walk — that is to say, a path 50, 75, or 100 

 feet froin house to street, a border of 18 in. 

 of sod next to the walk, then a 24-inch bor- 

 der of phacelia the whole length, is a beau- 

 ty; but a solitary plant is a lonesome af- 

 fair to deal with. 



On pag-e 500 I see your Straw on queens 

 more than two j'ears old being more valua- 

 ble with more age. I have one in her fifth 

 season that, three times this 3'ear, I have 

 refused S50 for, and she is keeping up her 

 7 L. combs solid with brood — one four years 

 old and three of them three years old. 

 Neither of them is for sale or trade One 

 of the three-year-olds is working in 60 A% X 

 A% 7-to-foot, with 9 L. frames with solid 

 brood below. I really wish she would hold 

 up on laying-, as I think I should like her 

 just as well in 1904 as 1902. 



H. L. Jeffrey. 



Woodbury, Ct., June 22. 



[Dr. Miller comments as follows:] 



Mr. Jeffrey evidently thinks that the pha- 

 celia that has been lauded by the European 

 journals is the same as the phacelia of the 

 florists in this country. I have all the 

 time supposed it a ditterent plant, but I 

 should be glad to believe that he is right 

 and I am wrong. I have had the phacelia 

 of which he speaks, a beautiful flower, and 

 a field of it would be worth a considerable 

 journey to see. But is it the same as the 

 forage plant of Europe? I have never heard 

 of it as a forage plant in this country. Is 

 it possible that so beautiful a flower has a 

 forage value? Of its value as a honey- 

 plant, there is no doubt. You know that, 

 as a rule, bees do not pay much attention 



to honey-plants if there be only a few spec- 

 imens; but if 3'ou have only one or two pha- 

 celia-plants you will find them busily visit- 

 ed by the bees. The flower is so beautiful 

 that at one time I kept it as a house-plant 

 in winter. I can hardly believe that this 

 beautiful flower and rich honey-plant is 

 valuable for forage or we should have heard 

 of it before this. As I think the Europeans 

 got it from California, it ought not to be a 

 hard matter to learn about it from Califor- 

 nians. 



[Regarding the new colossal white clover. 

 Dr. Miller says:] 



There is no sort of question that the new 

 white clover, "colossal Ladino, " is any 

 thing- but a humbug. I have seven plants 

 now coming into bloom that I raised from 

 the same seed as that I sent you. One of 

 the plants is nothing but the common white 

 clover. Five of them have leaves like red 

 clover, and the seventh has leaves that look 

 like alsike, only they are. as large as red- 

 clover leaves. I inclose a leaf of each of 

 the three kinds. You will see that the two 

 larger kinds are fully as large as red-clo- 

 ver leaves. But the habit of growth is ut- 

 terly unlike that of alsike and red clover, 

 and is exactly that of white clover, for the 

 stalk runs along the ground, and roots at 

 intervals. The plant from which I plucked 

 the red-clover leaf has one of its blossoms 

 out nearly full, and it is a regular white- 

 clover blossom of large size, but hardly so 

 large in proportion as the leaf. The stem 

 of the blossom measures eleven inches. 



The question is, whether colossal Ladino 

 has special value as a forage plant. Al- 

 though as large as red clover it is recum- 

 bent, the stalk all the time hugging the 

 ground closely, so I can hardly imagine 

 that the crop would at any time stand more 

 than ten or twelve inches high. Would 

 that be high enough to mow? 



C. C. Miller. 



[W^hen father came home from Michigan 

 for a few days he called my attention to 

 this big (?) clover growing in one of the 

 beds. He said the garden boys declared 

 they could see no difterence between it and 

 ordinary white clover. The blossoms seem- 

 ed to be just about the same in character- 

 istics and size, but the foliage of some of 

 it seems to be much larger than that of 

 white. I say sojue of it, for it seems to 

 vary greatly. W^e scarcel}' knew what es- 

 timate to put on it. But if I had bought 

 lOv) lbs. of it, paying a big- price for it, I 

 am not sure but that I should have pro- 

 nounced it a humbug. — Ed.] 



phacelia as A HONEV-PLANT. 



Mr. Root: — I have your ABC book, but 

 in it I fail to find what I should like to 

 know — does phacelia yield honey? In the 

 spring of 1901 my wife received a package 

 of mixed flower-seeds. She sowed these 

 seeds just in front of the kitchen door. 

 When they came up I began to make fun of 

 her " ragweed " as I called it; but it soon 



