The Life of the Bee 



plant within a certain radius from the 

 hive. 



" If we carefully note the different direc- 

 tions in which these foragers fly, and 

 observe in detail the harvest they gather 

 from the various plants around, we shall 

 find that the workers distribute themselves 

 over the flowers in proportion not only to 

 the numbers of flowers of one species, but 

 also to their melliferous value. Nay, 

 more — they make daily calculations as tJ 

 the means of obtaining the greatest possi- 

 ble wealth of saccharine liquid. In the 

 spring, for instance, after the willows have 

 bloomed, when the fields still are bare, 

 and the first flowers of the woods are the 

 one resource of the bees, we shall see 

 them eagerly visiting gorse and violets, 

 lungworts and anemones. But, a few days 

 later, when fields of cabbage and colza 

 begin to flower in sufficient abundance, we 

 shall find that the bees will almost entirely 



175 



