of March, with a succession of blossoms 

 for a month and sometimes more. 

 Yields honey and pollen. 



Ratan vine (smitax) blooms from the 

 tenth of April to the last of the month ; 

 furnishing an inexhaustible quantity, 

 and a very fair quality of honey. In 

 localities where this vine abounds, our 

 spring yield is from it, and our main 

 swarming is thrown off from the 

 abundance of this crop. 



Black locust and honey locust (robin- 

 ia) flower in March, commencing about 

 the middle of the month, and giving a 

 succession of flowers for rather more 

 than twenty days ; furnishing both 

 honey and pollen of excellent quality. 



Pepper-wood, angelica tree ( aralia 

 spinosa, Linn.) furnishes both honey 

 and pollen ; honey of inferior quality on 

 account of its pungency. Blooms 

 April twentieth, with a succession of 

 fifteen to twenty days. It is visited 

 mostly for its pollen, which is abundant. 



Poison ivy {rhus toxicodendron) fur- 

 nishes an abundance of pollen and 

 some honey. Blooms in April through- 

 out the month. 



Milk weed ( anantkerix connivens, 

 Peay), commences flowering early in 

 May, with a succession of flowers up to 

 the middle of June % and sometimes 

 later. It furnishes an abundance of 

 honey, of an inferior quality, being 

 strong and pungent. It yields no pol- 

 len; its pollen cohering in masses, 

 called pollinia, are suspended by a 

 thread-like beak, in the sides of the 

 connate mass of anthers, which are 5- 

 angled, truncate, opening by five longi- 

 tudinal rissures, which when the flower 

 opens and comes to maturity, release 

 the pollinia, throwing them out, and 

 being furnished with wings, so to speak, 

 and a heavy viscid beak will scarcely 

 escape the cup-like flower without com- 

 ing in contact with the stigma. These 

 pollen masses are of great incon- 

 venience to the bees, as in visiting the 

 flower for the nectar, their feet come 

 in contact with these pollinia, and by 

 the viscid fluid they become firmly 

 attached ; and in going from flower to 

 flower every pair that touches, sticks. 

 As soon as the viscid liquid dries, it 

 becomes brittle and soon falls off. 

 They do not kill the bees as asserted by 

 some, but I am satisfied that bees are 

 considerably disabled for the time be- 

 ing, by these unnatural and clumsy ap- 

 pendages, and I am of the opinion that 

 bees do as well, or perhaps better with- 

 out this plant ; but where it is to be 

 - found, bees will invariably visit it, not- 

 withstanding the deleterious conse- 

 quences ; but had it not been for this 

 plant in some localities the past season, 



many apiaries would have starved out ; 

 for it was an uncommonly dry year, and 

 this was the only honey-plant we had. 



Persimmon {diospyros virginiana) 

 commences to bloom early in May, with 

 a succession of flowers for rather more 

 than a month, early varieties sometimes 

 have half grown fruit, by the time the 

 later varieties are in bloom. It affords 

 an excellent quality of honey ; in locali- 

 ties where there are a few acres of these 

 trees, bees will become rich in stores in 

 a very short time. 



Black sumac (Rhus.), commences to 

 bloom about the first of June, with a 

 succession of flowers for one month. 

 White sumac ten to fifteen days later, 

 both furnishing honey and pollen of 

 fair quality. 



Cotton plant (gossypium herbaceum), 

 commencing to bloom about the 15th of 

 June, with a succession of flowers till 

 frost ; furnishing both pollen and honey. 

 The blossom expands its petals of rich 

 creamy-white, about 10 o'clock a. m. 

 As soon as the flower is open enough, 

 the bees immediately visit it, gathering 

 both pollen and honey ; prior to the 

 opening of the new flower, early in the 

 morning the bees seek the flowers of 

 the day before, which have closed, and 

 are of a pale red color, diving down 

 out-side, at the base, and lapping up 

 the delicious nectar, which is no longer 

 necessary for the development of the 

 floral organs. Bees gather more honey 

 from this flower after it begins to close, 

 say after 11 o'clock a.m., till 9 a.m. 

 next day, than from the freshly opened 

 flower; which furnishes mostly pollen. 

 The honey from this plant is dark, like 

 that of buckwheat, but of good flavor, 

 very thick and granulating shortly after 

 it is extracted. 



Jamestown weed [datura stramonium), 

 commonly called jimson, is visited late 

 in the evening and very early in the 

 morning, but the bee is unable to pro- 

 cure any.honey except from the largest 

 flowers. Several species of wild bees 

 enter it, and some species gnaw into 

 the flower at the base for the purpose of 

 obtaining the abundant supply of nectar 

 which this flower evolves. 



Corn [zea mays, Linn.). The tassel of 

 corn yields pollen early, and some honey 

 later on. If the weather is favorable 

 for the reproduction of plant-lice, we 

 may always expect them to attack the 

 tassel, making the top leaves " sticky " 

 and discolored. I have seen bees " pile " 

 on the tassel till you could scarcely have 

 seen anything but the bees, gathering 

 this " honey-dew." The honey thus 

 obtained is dark, but of very fair flavor. 

 A few remarks on the subject of honey- 

 dew may not be out of place here 



