Gleanings in Bee Culture 



family, 24 are blue, 88 blue-purple, 13 red, 

 33 yellow, 89 white. Of the 120 species of 

 the mint family, oo are blue, 47 blue-purple, 

 12 red, 4 yellow, 24 white. Of the 113 species 

 of the ligwort family, 28 are blue, 32 blue- 

 purple, 7 red, 33 yellow, 13 white. As for 

 the gentians, their blueness is proverbial, 

 and has been well described by Bryant in 

 his lines "To a Blue Gentian." 



Blue, blue, as if the sky let fall 

 A flower from Its cerulean wall. 



On the other hand, neither bee nor blue 

 flowers occur in the pink and rose families. 

 In the immense orchis family, in which bee 

 flowers are of comparatively rare occurrence, 

 there is only one blue flower, Vanda creru- 

 lea, of India. In this family red seems 

 much easier to develop than blue. It should 

 be added that, when two or more species of 

 bee flowers, belonging to the same genus, 

 blossom simultaneously in the same locali- 

 ty, they are frequently unlike in color, as 

 red, white, and yellow in the clovers. This 

 diversity of color facilitates the efforts of the 

 bee to remain constant to one species. 



If you ask me why bee flowers are so often 

 blue, I shall be compelled to admit that I 

 do not know with certainty. It is a prob- 

 lem that still awaits further study. Some 

 naturalists say the bees prefer blue to every 

 other color, while others claim that it is 

 merely an incidental result correlated with 

 the high specialization of the flower. For 

 example, in the animal kingdom, white 

 cats (if they have blue eyes) are nearly al- 

 ways deaf, but no one knows why. 



Bee flowers are usually marked with spots 

 or lines called "nectar guides," which point 

 out the way to the nectar. In the snap- 

 dragon the palate is yellow; in the pickerel- 

 weed there are two bright-yellow spots on 

 the middle lobe of the upper lip; in the tur- 

 tlehead the white corolla has reddish lips. 

 The flower of the hedge nettle (Stachys 

 erecta) is yellowish white, with the border 

 of the upper lip marked with two purple 

 stripes, and the lower lip purple-spotted. 

 The flower of the dead nettle {Lamian al- 

 bum) is large, white, or sometimes rose-col- 

 ored, with the under lip pale yellow, mark- 

 ed with olive-colored dots; while the flowers 

 of the hemp nettle ((r'aleojysis tetrahit), so 

 common in waste places, is purple with a 

 pathfinder on the lower lip of a yellow spot 

 crossed by a network of red lines. 



Finally, notwithstanding the industry 

 and immense numbers of the honeybee, 

 there are no flowers adapted to this species 

 alone. Why should there be bumblebee 

 flowers, but no honeybee flowers? Should 

 we not rather expect the reverse? But on 

 inquiry into the economy of the honeybee 

 the reason is evident enough. Our domes- 

 tic bee requires large quantities of stores, 

 and in order to obtain them it must visit a 

 great variety of flowers throughout the en- 

 lire season. For this purpose a tongue of 

 medium length is far more useful than a 

 longer one. If the tongue is very long the 

 H'^ctar in open, wheelshaped flowers, like 

 the strawberry and basswood, can be sucked 



up only with difficulty and delay. To be 

 sure, they would be able to obtain some nec- 

 tar now inaccessible, as from bumblebee 

 flowers like the red clover, or from moth 

 flowers like the climbing honeysuckle, but 

 this would not compensate for the disadvan- 

 tages sustained. If a longer tongue would 

 have been beneficial to the honeybee, Na- 

 ture would have long since developed one. 

 Apiarists can not improve on the tongue of 

 the honeybee, nor can they produce a per- 

 manent strain of red-clover bees. Taken as 

 a whole, and under all conditions, the tongue 

 of the honeybee, as it exists, is much better 

 adapted for the work to be done than any 

 that can be produced by artificial selection. 

 But there would seem to be no reason why 

 a variety of red clover with shorter tubes 

 should not be obtained by selection, if hy- 

 bridizing with the forms with longer corollas 

 can be prevented. 

 Waldoboro, Maine. 



BEEKEEPING IN BULGARIA 



BY NICHOLAS CHR. BARACKOFF 



It is about nine years since I first became 

 acquainted with Gleanings, and since that 

 time it has been my guide-book on bees. I 

 am pleased with it, not only because of its 

 teaching in all branches of beekeeping, but 

 because of "Our Homes," which gives me 

 much encouragement in my Christian life. 



I have endeav ored to spread the use of the 

 American Langstroth hive in our country; 

 and, although I have run against consider- 

 able opposition, I think that this hive will 

 soon be generally used. I also do what I 

 can toward writing about American methods 

 for publication; and I have translated much 

 from Gleanings to encourage our beekeep- 

 ers. 



Hiiuitre Pantcheflf, Nicholas Chr. BarackolT, 

 Uolna-Bania, Bulgaria. 



All Slavic states of the Balkan Peninsula 

 in Europe have formed a Slavic beekeepers' 

 association which has an annual meeting 

 every year at different capital cities of the 

 Slavic states. The first meeting was in 

 1910, at the capital city of Bulgaria. The 

 second was in Servia, at Belgrad; and the 

 next one, which will be in 1912, is in Rus- 



