November, 1314. 



American IBec Jonrna^^ 



warm air and the ventilation would be 

 imperfect above. The upper openings 

 would probably not need to be as large 

 as the lower ones, and 2x4 inches 

 would be sufficient. If the entrance to 

 cellar is of easy access, it will not be 

 difficult, by the use of a thermometer, 

 to keep the temperature to the point 

 where the bees will be quietest, which 

 is usually between 40 and 45 degrees 

 Fahrenheit. I would close the outlet 

 of the tubes with a screen to keep out 

 mice and insects. 



Dryness is of great importance. I 

 have seen the combs mold in a damp 

 cellar. The elevated position of your 

 cellar would probably insure its thor- 

 ough drainage. 



On the whole your plan is good. If 

 possible, place your hives on timbers 

 so as to elevate them a few inches 

 above the floor. Leave the covers and 

 bottom-boards on the summer stands 

 and give plenty of room between the 

 bodies. However, if your bottom- 

 boards are 2 inches deep, like those of 

 Dr. Miller, or if you can give a large 

 space between the body and the bot- 

 tom, there is no objection in bringing 

 the hives in with their bottom-boards. 

 There must be a good circulation of 



air, the more so if there is any damp- 

 ness. — Editor.1 



Honey Hiding Places 



BY DR. LEONARD KEENE HIRSHBERG. 



THE flowers have wonderful hiding 

 places for their honey. Not every 

 flower, it is true, counts honey 

 among its assets, not even all the 

 showy ones such as the poppy and the 

 rock rose, who seem to make the great- 

 est efforts to attract insect visitors, still 

 those flowers — and they are many — that 

 do produce it have evolved all sorts of 

 devices for hiding it away. But these 

 honey hiding places — like the priest's 

 hiding holes in ancient mansions — are 

 meant to be found by the rig'it sort of 

 visitors, and are only hidden from rude 

 intruders. When they do occur, they 

 are part of that plan of structure and 

 mechanism which nature, the great 

 architect, has laid down in each in- 

 dividual flower. They are so ar- 

 ranged that an insect visitor in search 

 of honey must pass along a certain 

 palh if he would arrive at it. It is his 

 passage along this path and the ensuing 

 consequence of his becoming a pollen 

 carrier — and hence a cross fertilizer — 

 that the plant desires. 



In the large majority of cases the 

 honey is tucked away in the flower 

 itself, though there are striking excep- 

 tions, but even within the narrow limits 

 of a flower there is the greatest possi- 



ble diversity in its position, and there 

 is no part of a flower which is not 

 made, in one plant or another, the car- 

 rier of a honey bag 



One of the most striking shows of 

 honey in this c luntry is that which is 

 discovered in the recesses of the crown 

 imperial lily. There, at the center of 

 the brilliant hued perianth, can be seen 

 six large honey pits, one on every 

 floral leaf. Each is I'mining over with 

 a big drop of honey glistening like a 

 tear drop. Shake the flower and it 

 " weeps " as the big drops fall from it, 

 soon to be replaced by other "tears" 

 in the quickly secreting flower. 



" Job's tears " the country folks some- 

 times call lachrymose plants. In the 

 Martagon lily the honey is confined in 

 swollen veins or channels which tra- 

 verse the perianth leaves, rivers run- 

 ning with sweetness. The snowdrop, 

 little as it is suspected of honey ten- 

 dencies, nevertheless has also veins of 

 nectar coursing through its fragile 

 whiteness. 



Honey is very rarely produced in the 

 sepals of the flower, but in the nastur- 

 tium instead of being small, green, 

 and insignificant, as is the general rule, 

 they are brilliantly colored and rival 

 the petals in glory. One of them takes 

 upon itself the function of honey pro- 

 viding. It is produced backwards into 

 a very long pointed spur which is quite 

 hollow, but which, if bitten, gives a 

 taste of sweetness mingling with the 

 usual acridness of the flower, the sweet- 

 ness chiefly lying at the remote tip. 



KRED OPPRIGHT IN HIS AI'IAKY .-K 1' SKNF.CA. WIS. 



The county paper of the county in whicli Mr. Oppriirht lives, recently had an article about him. entitled. "The Sweetest Man in Seneca.' 



Mr. Oppright has liad forty years' experience and hasn't lost a colony durini; winter in lifteen years. He runs for comb lioney. 



