122 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



Mississippi. But the experiment station says that if the 

 land in Illinois be inoculated with some of the soil from 

 the proper alfalfa regions of the West, it will grow as well 

 here. If they can make changes in its growth, is it not 

 just possible that it may yet become a honey-plant here? 



GIANT WHITE CLOVER. 



A new honey-plant was mentioned a good deal in 

 foreign bee- journals, a giant white clover, called Colossal 

 Ladino (Fig. 48). I succeeded in getting some seed 

 from Switzerland, sowed a few of them in the window 

 in the winter, and had the plants blooming in the 

 summer of 1902. For the purpose of comparison you 

 will see in Fig. 4(S, at the right, a branch of red clover, 

 and at the left a plant of common white or Dutch clover, 

 both grown on the same ground. As you will see by 

 looking at the picture, the new plant has leaves as large 

 as those of red clover and in appearance I think they are 

 identical. The blossom, however, which you will see 

 toward the left, looks precisely like a large white clover 

 blossom. The habit of growth, too, is that of the com- 

 mon white clover, running along the ground and taking 

 root as it goes. A look at the picture will show this, the 

 roots being seen coming from the stalk at the left. 



Just how much value there is in this new clover I do 

 not know. As will be seen, it grows much larger than 

 the common white, but only as its leaves and leaf stems 

 are larger, for it does not grow up and throw out branches 

 like red clover. It died out the second winter. 



LINDEN, CATNIP, GOLDENRQD, ASTERS, HEARTSEASE. 



Linden or basswood (Fig. 49) is a scarce article, the 

 flavor of linden honey being seldom perceptible in any 

 honey stored by my bees. I take great pleasure, how- 

 ever, in the sight of a row of lindens running from the 

 public road up to the house (Fig. 50). 



Catnip (Fig. 51) is scattered about, in some places 

 quite plentiful where it has the protection of hedges, for 



