530 



.Tune 21, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



earlier than others, and some of the buds on the same trees 

 or bushes are io days later than others. The kinds which 

 seem to attract the bees most are the black willow, upon 

 which the kilmarnock is budded, and those which produce a 

 long, cone-like flower similar to the black willow. From 

 these two kinds the bees obtain large quantities of pollen, 

 but as far as I can ascertain, no honey. The flowers are of 

 a rich orange color, and consist of a center, out of which 

 spring hundreds of little thread-like filaments, upon which 

 the pollen is supported. It is very interesting to see the 

 bees work on these flowers, as you can see their motions so 

 plainly, for the tree or bush does not grow so high but 

 what some of the lower limbs are about on a level with the 

 eye. It naturally grows on low, swampy ground ; but with 

 a little culture to start, will readily grow on dry ground. 

 The golden willow (the kind with the "yellow-brush") and 

 the white willow give us our first honey, unless I except 

 the weeping willow, which is grafted or budded on the black 

 willow. This last is about 3 or 4 days earlier in blossom- 

 ing, and where there are many of these weeping willows, 

 they would be quite an acquisition to any apiary located near 

 them; but as there are very few trees of this kind about 

 here, there is not enough to make any perceptible show in 

 an ordinary apiary. 



Neither of these last 3 willows mentioned give any pol- 

 len, in my opinion, for from a close observation for years 

 I have never seen a single bee with any pollen in her baskets 

 while she was at work on them. When these willows are 

 in bloom, and the weather is warm, the bees will rush out of 

 their hives at early dawn, coming home so loaded that they 

 will drop short of the entrance, the same as they do in a 

 heavy clover or basswood yield of nectar. And they work on 

 these willows all day long, the same as they do on bass- 

 wood. The flowers are similar to those which grow on the 

 birch and poplar, being of long, tag-like shape, as large around 

 as a slate-pencil, and from ij4 to 2 inches long. These 

 tags or blossoms secrete nectar so profusely, when the 

 weather is right, that it can many times be seen glistening 

 in the morning sun, by holding the blossoms between the 

 eyes and that orb, and on two occasions I have seen whole 

 trees with the nectar sparkling like so many diamonds par- 

 tially hidden amongst the leaves; while the trees resound 

 with the busy hum of the bees from morning till night. 



From the few trees along the creek near here, the bees 

 store often from 10 to 20 pounds per colony while the trees 

 are in bloom. The honey is quite similar to apple-blossom 

 honey, and of a nice, aromatic flavor. The golden willow 

 yields the most nectar of any willow with which I am 

 acquainted, and as this first honey is used for breeding pur- 

 poses, it lays the foundation for a surplus from the clover 

 and basswood, by filling the hives with brood at just the 

 right time so that the bees from this brood come on the 

 stage of action as laborers just when these surplus-honey 

 yielding flowers give us our crop for the year. For this, the 

 great value of the willows will be seen. 



"RETENTION OF HEAT IN THE BROOD-NEST AGAIN." 



Under the above caption, on page 441, some experiments 

 are given, as conducted by Dr. Miller, to see whether Doo- 

 httle was right in claiming that the crust of bees prevented 

 the heat from the cluster escaping into an upper hive. If 

 I shall not be considered too inquisitive, I would like to 

 ask whether the sun was shining on the hive when the Doc- 

 tor conducted his experiments; for, if so, he would have 

 gotten a higher temperature in that hive than he did with 

 his thermometer in the shade, in the open air, unless his 

 thermometer in the open air was in the sun. And I do not 

 think his thermometer in the open air stands in the sun at 

 all, for all records of open-air thermometers are given "in 

 the shade." So, if this upper story stood in the sun and 

 his outside thermometer in the shade, the difference which 

 he reports between the temperature of the two, would be 

 hardly as great as I would expect under such circumstances. 



Again, the only time when such experiments can be 

 tried, to give any correct idea, is at night, for when bees are 

 working "busily," as the Doctor reports that his were at the 

 time of his experiments, the crust of bees is sure to be 

 broken to a more or less extent, so that the heat escapes 

 from it to quite a large degree. Then, with the mercury 

 at 50 to 60 degrees in the shade, outside, the crust is never 

 very compact, and when the mercury goes to 70 and above 



the crust bees very largely abandon their position, for they 

 are not needed under these circumstances, as the general 

 heat coming from the hustle and bustle of the hive is suf- 

 ficent to keep up the necessary brood-temperature in the 

 brood-nest. 



I am pleased to see that any have gone to experiment- 

 ing, for good will come from it; and this note is only 

 "thrown in," to help the matter along, by guiding a little in 

 the "right direction." Borodino, N. Y. 



Mints as Honey-Plants— Moths 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



THE mints — Family Labiatae — are a close second to the 

 legumes among honey-plants. Like the legumes, the flow- 

 ers are irregular in form, which fact alone would warrant 

 the assertion that they are rich in nectar-secretion. Many regu- 

 lar flowers, like the common orchard bloom, or rosaceous 

 plants — the linden and tulip — are profuse in the secretion of 

 nectar, but the \ery fact of irregularity is conclusive on this 

 point. Indeed, there can be little or no doubt but that in the 

 evolution of these plants with irregular flowers the modified 

 bloom had special reference to the secretion of nectar, the 

 visits of bees and other nectar-loving insects, and the valuable 

 necessary act of pollination. While we know that many 

 plants, like some varieties of our apples and pears, which 

 have regular flowers — by which we mean that all the petals 

 or flower leaves are alike in size and form — must be cross- 

 pollinated to produce seeds, we are equally certain that all 

 with irregular flowers require this cross-pollination, or at 

 least are the better with it. Irregular flowers, then, such as 

 we see in the mints and legumes, always speak to us of two 

 truths — the necessity of cross-pollination, and, with suitable 

 moisture and nutrition, the invariable presence of nectar. 



We are not surprised, then, that the sages, motherwort 

 and horse-mint, are among our best and most *amed honey- 

 plants. The mints are typical bilabiates. That is, while the 

 flower is typically of 5 parts, or constructed on the plan of 5, 

 the petals are so united as to appear in 2 parts. A type of 

 flower familiar to us all is the common snap-dragon, which, 

 though not a mint, is also a bilabiate. Thus, we may say such 

 flowers have an upper and lower lip, and a throat which is 

 more or less open, as the work of cross-pollination makes 

 most advantageous. The stamens which bear the pollen are 

 high up in this throat, as is also the stigma of the pistil. As 

 the bee or other insect pushes back into this throat for the 

 coveted nectar-drop, its back becomes powdered with the pol- 

 len, and as it crowds into the next flower this pollen-dust 

 is brushed off on the waiting stigma, and thus the bees be- 

 come indeed the marriage-priests which unite the elements of 

 the bloom, and insure offspring. As the pollen and stigma 

 are not conterminous in time of ripening, we easily see how 

 cross-pollination is insured. 



Chief among the honey-bearing mints are the incompara- 

 ble sages of California. These are not excelled even by the 

 clovers or linden. The honey is white, delicate of flavor, and 

 must ever rank among the very best in appearance and qual- 

 ity. Not only this, but the quantity is often phenomenal. 

 This comes from the fact that the flowers are borne in long 

 racemes or compact heads, and as the separate flowerets do 

 not bloom all at once, but in succession, the plants are in 

 bloom for weeks. The sages, then, are marvelous honey-pro- 

 ducers, first, because of the generous secretions of each flow- 

 eret, and second, because of the immense number of these 

 flowerets and the long period of bloom. 



The motherwort, catnip (which was so highly esteemed 

 by the late Mr. Quinby as the best plant for roadside and 

 waste-place planting), the famous heather of Scotland, are 

 other familiar examples of the mints. Of the three most 

 common families of plants conspicuous for their irregular 

 flowers, each has one or more very noted honey-bearing 

 species. White clover, alfalfa, sweet clover, and mesquite, are 

 all famous among the legumes ; white sage, black or ball 

 sage, and horse-mint, are as important among the mints; 

 while willow-herb and figwort are famous among the plants 

 of the other most familiar bilabiate family — Scropulariacese. 

 The legume family gives us our most valued cultivated 

 plants, like clover, beans and peas. The mints are valuable 

 for ornament, and extracts; while the figwort family fur- 

 nishes us many of our finest ornamental plants, like the 



