360 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



September 



disease may reappear within a season 

 or two. 



Again, it will suddenly appear in 

 some previously free yard far from 

 any infe ited territory. How does it 

 get there? I discovered one of the 

 ways this summer. A thrifty apiary 

 in territory never known to be in- 

 fected before and two miles from the 

 nearest known bees, had a stray 

 swarm come to it and establish itself 

 in a vacant hive containing a full set 

 of clean combs. I chanced to disT 

 cover it within ten days of its arrival, 

 and fully half of the larvae showed the 

 disease. It was quite evident that a 

 swarm can cai-ry germs of the disease. 

 Perhaps if they had had to build 

 their own combs, they might have got- 

 ten rid of all germs before there was 

 any brood to feed. 



But any vagrant swarm from an 

 infected hive may wander into our 

 best kept apiaries and bring trouble 

 galore. And if such a swarm joins a 

 weak or queenless colony right m the 

 midst of a lot of clean ones, we can 

 easily see how quickly that apiary 

 would be ruined. 



And how can we prevent it? I 

 don't know. But I do know it does 

 not worry me the way it did. It is 

 always a bother, but it need rot be a 

 calamity. 



Rhode Island. 



SOME HONEY PLANTS OF ALA- 

 BAMA 



By L. H. Pammel 

 There are great possibilities for 

 beekeepers in the State of Alabama, 

 and there are a large number of 

 honey plants growing in that State. 

 The writer recently spent a week in 

 Alabama, and while there noted the 

 bees, and the flowers they visited. 

 My observations were mostly made 

 at Montgomery and Tuskegee. In 

 the vicinity of Montgomei-y, the chief 

 supply of honey, while there, came 

 from the biennial white sweet clover 

 (Melilotus alba), although I am told 

 that in western Alabama there is 

 much of the annual white sweet clo- 

 ver, known as Hubam. There was 

 some of the yellow ( Melilotus offici- 

 nalis). It took honeybees only a lit- 

 tle over a second to drain each flower 

 of nectar. 



There was considerable of the small 

 annual yellow sweet clover (Melilo- 

 tus indica). The small yellow and 

 the white biennial have fairly taken 

 the country. Bees were abundant on 

 the white and the biennial yellow, and 

 occasionally they were observed on 

 M. indica._ I do not consider this of 

 great value as a honey plant, judging 

 from what I saw. 



Another legume is spreading in the 

 country, the black medick (Medicagro 

 denticulata). I did not see any bees 

 on the plant, though they may occur. 

 I was quite surprised to find that the 

 white clover (Trifolium repens) was 

 fairly comhion around Montgomery 

 and frequently visited by honeybees. 

 The limy soil of this region is well 

 adapted to this splendid honey-pro- 

 ducing plant. There are many na- 

 tive legumes, only a few, however, 

 furnish nectar. There is an abund- 

 ance of cultivated legumes like the 

 lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) and 

 the cowpea (Vigna sinensis). While 

 these two plants yield some honey, 

 they are not important. Species of 

 Rhus are abundant; of these the 

 most common is the dwarf sumach 

 (Rhus copallina), which is abundant 

 in rocky woodlands or sandy pine 

 barrens. This plant, like its near 

 relative, the common sumach (Rhus 

 glabra) and fragrant sumach (Rhus 

 aromatica), should yield some honey. 



The sumachs are common in grav- 

 elly soils. I was much interested to 

 note the value of some members of 

 the mint family. Horsemint ( Monar- 

 da punctata) was common on clay 

 and somewhat sandy soils, and is a 

 good honey plant. I saw it frequently 

 visited by bees, and they were from 

 one to two seconds on a flower. Each 

 whorl had from 3 to 5 flowers in 

 bloom. 



I might note the abundance of 

 large horsemint (Monarda fistulosa) 

 in woods. It is slightly different from 

 our species. I did not observe any 

 honeybees on this species. There are 

 several species of Pycnanthemum in 

 pine woods and the narrow-leaved 

 Virginia thyme (Pycnanthemum lini- 

 folium) , hyssop-leaved mountain mint 

 (Pycnanthemum hyssopifolia) , the 

 whitish basil (Pycnanthemum albe- 

 scens) ; in the Birmingham region the 



Apiary uf J. .M. Cutis, S inilcs from Montgomery, .'\Ia. 



American pennyroyal (Hedeoma pu- 

 legioides) was common. Catnip (Ne- 

 peta cataria) has become extensively 

 naturalized, as well as the horehound 

 (Marrubium vulgare) and mother- 

 wort (Leonurus cardiaca.) Another 

 good honey plant of this family is 

 wood- sage (Teucrium canadense), 

 which is fairly common in places. 



I was much interested in one of the 

 cultivated shrubs, not infrequently 

 planted as a hedge plant, thyme 

 (Thymus vulgaris), which is one of 

 the good honey plants. These plants 

 were in full bloom early in June and 

 were covered with bees from morning 

 until night. The bees were, on an av- 

 erage, one and a half seconds on a 

 flower. 



The varnish tree (Firmiana plan- 

 tanifolia). (the common name is a 

 misnomer), is much visited by bees. 

 It seems to be rich in honey. I saw 

 many bees on it in Montgomery, and 

 they seemed to find a great deal of 

 nectar. On an average, they were 

 from 4 to 6 seconds in a flower. The 

 species is commonly planted for orna- 

 mental purposes. 



At Tuskegee, I was much interested 

 in watching honeybees work on the 

 flowers of Abelia. I noticed that they 

 got nectar, not in the usual way, but 

 through perforations near the base of 

 the flower. I thought at first that 

 they were making the perforations, 

 but soon found wasps were the real 

 culprits and that the honeybees then 

 made use of the perforations. 



It seems to me that Alabama must 

 be a paradise for beekeepers, with 

 white sweet clover abundant in many 

 parts of the State and, on the bot- 

 toms, such plants as sweet bay 

 (Magnolia, glauca) and magnolia 

 (Magnolia foetida), though said not 

 to be important; the tupelo genus 

 (Nyssa aquatica), two species of bass- 

 wood in the north, the common bass- 

 wood (Tilia americana), which oc- 

 curs only occasionally in northern 

 Alabama, the silver leaf basswood 

 (Tilia heterophylla), found in central 

 Alabama, just in bloom. There are 

 also several species of grape: the 

 Muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia), 

 the downy grape (Vitis cinerea) and 

 the summer grape (Vitis aestivalis). 

 I might say that members of the sun- 

 flower family are abundant, but noth- 

 ing like our Spanish needle (Bidens 

 aurea) of the North, the western bur 

 marigold (Bidens involucrata) . I no- 

 ticed tickweed (Coreopsis lanceo- 

 lata), but no bees on it. I noticed 

 many asters and species of boneset, 

 but none in bloom. The region is 

 rich in members of the composite fam- 

 ily and many of these furnish nectar. 

 I noticed the Cherokee rose (Rosa 

 laevigata) and the McCartney rose 

 (Rosa bracteata) everywhere climb- 

 ing over fences. These furnish an 

 abundance of pollen. The list of 

 honey and pollen plants might be 

 greatly extended. There are, it 

 seems to me, great possibilities in 

 apiculture in Alabama ; with the 

 ever-increasing amount of sweet clo- 

 ver and the large number of honey- 

 producing ornamental plants, Ala- 

 bama should do wonders in beekeep- 

 ing. I am told, however, that it is 



