MAY 15, 1912 



tlS 



caraway and carrot, the wild parsnip, the 

 water hemlock, and water parsley — plants 

 growing luxuriantly by the roadside, along 

 the river, and in the meadow. The flowers 

 differ very little in structure, and the species 

 can be identified only by the aid of the 

 mature fruit. The nectar is secreted in a 

 thin layer by a fleshy disc surrounding the 

 style. Insects of every kind are made wel- 

 come, and no other family of flowers has so 

 large a number and variety of visitors. On 

 some species more than 200 different kinds 

 of insects have been collected. The anthers 

 and stigmas mature at different times, so 

 that self-fertilization is prevented. Admir- 

 able simplicity and perfection are here com- 

 bined. This type of flower is not, however, 

 well adapted to honeybees, partly because 

 of the scarcity of the nectar, partly because 

 of the great number of other guests, and 

 partly because the nectar on a flat surface 

 can not be easily collected by long-tongued 

 insects. 



In the heath and huckleberry families 

 there are many small white cup-shaped or 

 urn-shaped pendulous flowers which are 

 very attractive to honeybees and bumble- 

 bees. In the orchid, pea, mint, and figwort 

 families there occur many irregular white 

 flowers which have been derived from yel- 

 low, red, or blue ancestors, partly as the re- 

 sult of retrogression and partly, perhaps, 

 because of the advantage arising from a 

 contrast of colors between closely allied 

 species blooming at the same time. Asa 

 Gray is reported to have said that any col- 

 ored flower might revert to white, and this 

 is undoubtedly true. 



Finally there are many very small white 

 flowers which are solitary, or at least not 

 densely clustered, which are of little value 

 to the beekeeper. Some fifty-six such species 

 belong to the pink family; they are low- 

 tufted weak herbs of a spreading or ascend- 

 ing habit represented by the chickweeds 

 and sandworts. They are chiefly visited by 

 flies, beetles, and the smaller bees. 



White flowers probably exceed all others 

 in importance to the beekeeper. Says the 

 A B C of Bee Culture, "We could better 

 spare any of the rest, and I might say all of 

 the rest, than our white clover that grows so 

 plentifully as to be almost unnoticed every- 

 where." Besides the white and sweet clo- 

 vers there are the buckwheat, button-bush, 

 locust, palmettos, and a great variety of 

 fruit-trees and berry-bushes. Scholl states 

 that in Texas the sweet clover {Melilotus 

 alba) and the common hoarhound are both 

 important honey plants. 



Waldoboro, Me. 



THE DRONE AS COMPARED TO THE QUEEN 

 AND WORKER 



BY D. M. MACDONALD 



Some points wherein there is a distinct 

 differentiation between the drone and the 

 two other orders of the bees in the hive are 



patent and well known. Thus the male has 

 no wax-pockets, for obvious reasons. Ev- 

 erybody knows it has no sting — fiot even a 

 rudimentary trace of one. Wax-glands 

 would be a superfluity, and therefore, wise- 

 ly, they do not exist. A drone with a fully 

 developed honey-sac would be an anomaly, 

 because it carries no load of sweet nectar into 

 the hive, and regurgitates no honey into the 

 cells; yet it has a rudimentary honey-sac 

 fairly developed. A true stomach it has; 

 but the parts in the worker yielding the 

 chyle food for the young are absent, and the 

 whole of the four systems of gland structure 

 are either absent, degenerated, or show only 

 a trace of their existence. He does no work 

 in the hive, for the very good reason that 

 he is incapable of performing any, the tools 

 with which these various labors are carried 

 out having been denied him. The button, 

 or spoon, on the point of his tongue has 

 been atrophied, so that he can sip no nectar 

 from the flowers. The rod is invisible on 

 his tongue, therefore he can not collect hon- 

 ey; while if he could, the absence of the ap- 

 pliances for regurgitating the true nectar 

 into the cells shows us he could not store 

 honey, even were he capable of collecting it. 

 His hind legs lack pollen-baskets, and he 

 has no currycombs or pincers. Not having 

 to take part in the elaboration of wax, its 

 transmission from the wax-pockets by 

 means of the pincers is not required of him. 

 The saliva for bestowing on the scales fluid- 

 ity or ductility can not be prepared by 

 drones, neither can they use wax to construct 

 cells or cap them. Appliances for convert- 

 "ing the cane sugar of nectar into the grape 

 sugar of honey would be useless, consequent- 

 ly they are wanting. The production of 

 brood food and royal jelly are things impos- 

 sible for these males, therefore in all drones 

 the gland structures have been aborted, or, 

 from the effects of sex selection, eliminat- 

 ed. 



The worker bee is one of the most intelli- 

 gent insects in creation, and is provided 

 with a brain quick, subtle, and so far seeing 

 that it must excite our admiration. Not 

 only relative to size, but actually, the brain 

 of the drone is much smaller, and especial- 

 ly does this hold good in the pedunculated 

 parts where intelligence is chiefly originat- 

 ed. Every one knows the drone is far from 

 having the credit of any great intellectual 

 possession. The brain, indeed, has been 

 atrophied in order that the sexual organs 

 may be highly developed, just as the queen's 

 ovaries have been perfected to the detriment 

 of her intellectual powers. Nature often 

 thus compensates one member of the body 

 by the sacrifice of some less important or- 

 gan. 



Glancing at the body of a drone, let us 

 now note a few points wherein he has been 

 more highly favored than either queen or 

 worker. In the head we find his compound 

 eyes marvelously developed, as we shall see 

 later, for a wise and necessary cause. His 

 antennae have each an extra joint, the queens 

 and workers being provided with only twelve 



