1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



445 



which has already been described. 

 This last experiment he seems to re- 

 gard as the strongest of all his "train- 

 ing experiments" in answer to Von 

 Frisch. No doubt it will appeal to 

 many readers, however, that in Von 

 Irisch's last demonstration, where no 

 syrup at all was present above any 

 color, the sense of smell of the bees 

 was taken into better account while 

 trying to determine whether they 

 were influenced by color than in these 

 tests of Hess where the final test was 

 made with food present above the 

 colors. 



Both Lovell and Turner, in their re- 

 cent work, reached the conclusion 

 that bees are influenced in their out- 

 door activities by color, and that they 

 exhibit color fidelity to flowers when 

 gathering nectar. But Turner says 

 that while he thinks his evidence 

 shows that bees recognize color fro .11 

 a distance, he is not sure whether it 

 is a true color vision or only a "gray- 

 ness discrimination" which they rec- 

 ognize in different colors. Thus it 

 would seem that the question has not 

 yet been answered with conclusive 

 evidence. Who w'ill take into account 

 the honeybee's sense of location, her 

 sense of smell, her ability to distin- 

 guish between light intensities to 

 some extent, and her possible recogni- 

 tion of form — and then gather de- 

 cisive e\adence to answer the ques- 

 tion: "Does the honeybee possess 

 color vision?" 



California. 



THE FALSE INDIGO (Amorpha) 



By Frank C. Pellett 



There are several species of anior- 

 pha common to America, but the ona 

 which is probably of most importance 

 to the beekeeper is the shrub com- 

 monly called "false indigo" or river 



locust (Amorpha fruticosa). It is 



also known as bastard indigo in some 

 localities. It grows most commonly 

 in damp, shady bottom lands and on 

 the banks of streams. It is occasion- 

 ally found in upland woodland bor- 

 ders where the soil is deep and rich. 



It is from 5 to 8 feet in height un- 

 der most conditions, but occasionally 

 reaches a height of 15 to 18 feet, "it 

 is widely distributed, being found 

 from New England, where it is rare, 

 west to Minnesota and Saskatchewan 

 and south to Florida and Mexico. In 

 Colorado it is reported at altitudes of 

 4,000 feet in Logan County, and in 

 the river flats east of Ft. Collins. In 

 Texas it is found on the river banks, 

 apparently throughout the State. In 

 Alabama and Georgia it is common, 

 as well as in the middle west.- In the 

 southern portion of its range, the 

 flowers appear in April and May, 

 while in the northern regions it 

 blooms as late as July. In Nebraska 

 and Kansas, where it is of greatest 

 importance to the bees, the blooming 

 season is early June or late May. The 

 flowers are deep blue or purple, and 

 are borne in long spike-like racemes, 

 as shown in the illustration. In the 

 Arkansas Valley in Kansas, beekeep- 

 ers report that it yields both nectar 

 and pollen in abundance. Nebraska 

 beekeepers value it, since it fills the 

 gap between fruit bloom and white 

 clover. 



The lead plant or shoestring, 

 (Amorpha canescens), also known as 

 wild tea, is a bushy shrub 1 to 3 feet 

 high, which is very common on the 

 plains from Manitoba to Texas and 

 New Mexico. The flowers are very 

 similar to the false indigo and the 

 blooming period is in mid-summer. 

 The name, lead plant, conies from its 

 color. There is a common saying 

 among farmers in Nebraska that 

 where the shoestring is found alfalfa 



will succeed. Although beekeepers 

 report that the bees work on the shoe- 

 string or lead plant, it apparently is 

 not of gi-eat value, even on the prai- 

 ries, where it is common. 



In addition to the above species 

 there is the dwarf false indigo 

 (Amorpha nana), which is found from 

 Manitoba to Iowa, Nebraska, Colo- 

 rado and New Mexico. This little 

 shrub, growing on the open prairie, 

 is seldom more than one foot in 

 height. The smooth amorpha (Amor- 

 pha glabra), is found along the coast 

 from North Carolina to Florida. 



There is one representative of the 

 group on the Pacific Coast, the Ca.i- 

 fornia false indigo (Amorpha cali- 

 fornlca). This species is found in 

 Southern California, Arizona, New 

 Mexico and also in Mexico. 



Although, as will be seen from the 

 above description, the group is widely 

 distributed, the writer has not been 

 able to find any localities outside the 

 States of Nebraska and Kansas where 

 it is of special importance to the bee- 

 keeper. 



The false indigo in bloom. 



THE HONEYBEE IN MEDICINE 



By Dr. Ransom A. Race 



A number of articles have appeared 

 lately in the American Bee Journal on 

 the use of the poison of the honeybee 

 for the benefit of rheumatic condi- 

 tions. It may be of interest to many 

 to know that the honeybee has, for 

 many years, been a great blessing to 

 people afl^licted with various ailments, 

 as well as those suffering with S3- 

 called rheumatism. 



The first account of the proving of 

 apis, that I can find, was by Dr. A. R. 

 Morgan, of Syracuse, N. Y., in Au- 

 gust, 18.58, and again in September, 

 1859, an account of which was 

 printed in the transactions of the New 

 York State Homeopathic Medical So- 

 ciety, Vol. 3, 1865, page 104. Since 

 then many provings have been made 

 by others, and verified in clinical use, 

 until today the symptomatology of 

 Apis mellifica is complete and exten- 

 sive. 



As first prepared, the live bees 

 were put in a bottle, which was well 

 shaken to irritate them. Five times 

 their weight of dilute alcohol was 

 poured upon them. The whole was 

 allowed to remain eight days, being 

 shaken twice a day. The tincture was 

 then poured off, strained and filtered. 

 This tincture was used for a number 

 of years before the drug known as 

 "Apium virus" was introduced by Dr. 

 Constantine Hering, of Philadelphia, 

 Pa. 



Apium virus is prepared by draw- 

 ing out the sting and poison sac from 

 a freshly-killed bee. Taking hold '^f 

 the sac, insert the point of the sting 

 into a small glass tube, and squeeze 

 the poison into it; or, take a live bee 

 and allow it to seize a small lump of 

 sugar; pinch the bee and it will im- 

 mediately sting into the sugar, which 

 will absorb the poison. Repeat the 

 process until enough is obtained to 

 start a tincture, or, if sugar is used, 

 to start a trituration. These drugs 



