For the American Bee Journal. 



Honey Plants of Northern Texas. 



DR. WM. K. HOWARD, 

 Secretary Texas Bee-Keepers' Association. 



In offering this list of native honey 

 plants, it will be necessary to consider 

 many plants cultivated by farmers and 

 planters, which furnish more or less 

 honey and pollen ; but before entering 

 upon our subject fully, we Avill offer, 

 here, a few remarks upon pollen, the 

 fertilization of plants, the production 

 of honey, etc. 



Pollen is in appearance a small yel- 

 low dust contained in the cells of the 

 anthers. When viewed with the micro- 

 scope it appears as grains of various 

 forms, usually spheroidal or oval, some- 

 times triangular or polyhedral, but 

 always of the same form and appear- 

 ance in the same species. Externally 

 they are curiously and often elegantly 

 figured,with stripes, bands, dots, checks, 

 etc. Each grain of pollen is a mem- 

 branous cell or sack containing a fluid ' 

 its coat is double, the outer is more 

 thick and firm, exhibiting one or more 

 breaks, where the inner coat, which is 

 very thin and expansible, is uncovered. 

 In the fluid are suspended molecules of 

 inconceivable minuteness, said to pos- 

 sess a tremulous motion. When the 

 membrane is exposed to moisture it 

 swells and bursts, discharging its 

 contents. 



In some of the flowers under con- 

 sideration in this text, the pollen grains 

 do not separate into a dust or powder ; 

 they all cohere into masses, called 

 pollinia, accompanied by a viscid fluid. 

 In flowers dependent upon insects for 

 their fertilization, there is a copious 

 deposit of starch provided in the 

 receptacle and disc. At the opening of 

 the flower, this is changed to sugar to 

 aid in the rapid development of those 

 delicate organs which have n# chloro- 

 phylle, wherewith to assimilate their 

 own food. The excess of sugar flows 

 over m the form of nectar ; which is 

 taken up by the hairy tongue of the 

 honey bee, and conveyed by the ali- 

 mentary tube, to the proventriculus, or 

 crop, where honey is elaborated by an 

 unknown chemical process, and regurgi- 

 tated into the honey cell. Many are of 

 the opinion that the honey as taken 

 rrom the flower, undergoes no change 

 before it is deposited by the bee in the 

 cell, and offer as argument, that it has 

 been proven that syrups, etc., undergo 

 no perceptible change in being trans- 

 ferred by the bee to the honey cells ; 

 and thus reason from analogy that no 

 cnange can take place within the labora- 



225 



tory of the honey bee. Be this as it 

 may, I will not stop to argue here, as it 

 can be of but little practical importance 

 to the apiarist. 



This wise economy of nectar is seen 

 in fertilization ; for attracted by it, t lie 

 insect enters the ilower, rudely brushes 

 the pollen from the now open anthers, 

 and inevitably lodges some of itjL 

 thousand grains upon the stigma. 



Experiment has proved ttr; L j,, a jj 

 cases of formation of suga r rrom starch 

 oxygen is absorbed a-* carbonic' acid 

 evolved-a proce^ wn ich we might ex- 

 pect, since starch (C« H 10 0">) contains 

 proportionally more carbon than sugar 

 fcrfHBOM) contains. It is probable 

 that these two phenomena in vegetation 

 are always co-existent. 



In the following list, the seasons 

 must be considered, as when the spring 

 opens early, the weather propitious, 

 both pollen and honey will be gathered 

 earlier, more abundant, and of better 

 quality; while in late, cold and wet 

 springs, there will be but little of either 

 collected and that of inferior quality, 

 making our swarming later. In 1879, 

 our fruit trees were in full bloom the 

 first of March, while now (March 1st) 

 we have none in bloom, not even the 

 wild plum. 



Ked elm {ulmus) furnishes an abund- 

 ance of pollen, and of good quality, and 

 commences to bloom early in January, 

 with a succession of blossoms for about 

 a month. Slippery elm blooms the last 

 of February, furnishing a rich pollen 

 for about two weeks. 



Wild plum (prunus) is next to red 

 elm, commencing early in February, 

 about the time elm ceases; with a suc- 

 cession of about fifteen days, furnishes 

 both honey and pollen ; the honey, 

 though of inferior quality is eagerly 

 sought by the bees, new honey giving, 

 as it were, new life and vigor to the 

 whole colony. 



Peach and pear commence to blossom 

 about the first of March, giving a suc- 

 cession of about twenty days, connect- 

 ing with the apple, which gives a succes- 

 sion of from ten to twenty days, owing 

 to the varieties; late winter apples 

 bloom several days later than the earlier 

 varieties. Fruit trees generally yield a 

 fair quality of both honey and pollen, 

 the former, being sometimes somewhat 

 bitter. 



Judas tree or red bud (cercis) blooms 

 from the first of March to the last of 

 the month, furnishing principally honey, 

 which is of good quality; eaiiy'swarms 

 are frequently thrown' off from the 

 abundance of this harvest. 



Black haw (viburnum). This shrub or 

 small tree blooms about the twentieth 



