LEGUMINOUS FORAGE CROPS 



177 



199. Inflorescence. Six to a dozen or more purple flowers 

 are borne in a short raceme, which as the flowers mature forms 

 a more or less head-like cluster. Each flower is on a short, slen- 

 der pedicel, which makes its removal from the flower head easy. 



Raceme of alfalfa flowers taken at Cornell Station Sept. 1 2. Natural size 



Hildebrandt has shown that seeds may form without the visita- 

 tion of insects. 1 Hunter reports an experiment in Kansas where 

 the honey bees increased the crop two-thirds over fields not 

 visited by bees. 2 The quality of the honey was excellent. Al- 

 falfa, however, would be valuable as a honey crop only when 

 grown for seed, since when cut for hay comparatively few flow- 

 ers are allowed to develop. Among practical seed growers the 



i Stebler and Schroter: The Best Forage Plants, p. 146. 

 = Contrib. Ent. Lab. Univ. Kansas, 1899, No. 65. 



