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VOL. LXI— NO. 1 2 



HAMILTON, ILL., DECEMBER, 1921 



MONTHLY, $1.50 A YEAR 



ALTITUDE AND SECRETION OF NECTAR 



An Account of the Effect of Elevation, Temperature, Etc., on the Amount 

 of Nectar Available to the Bees. — By^ohn H. Lovell. 



THE secretion of nectar is at once 

 one of the most interesting and 

 baffling: functions of plant life. 

 The older flower biologists, Mueller 

 and Kerner, describe the nectaries and 

 their position at great length, but of 

 the relation to the soil, climate and 

 temperature to secretion they knew 

 little. We suspect that Mueller would 

 have been not a little astonished had 

 he been told of the vagaries of alfalfa 

 and white clover in the production of 

 nectar. Most of our information on 

 this subject is due to the observations 

 of beekeepers, and will be found re- 

 corded in the files of the bee journals. 

 A large amount of data has been ac- 

 cumulated as to the facts, but the in- 

 fluence of the various factors is still 

 very imperfectly understood. 



Similarity of Conditions in Mountain- 

 ous and Arctic Reg^ions 



The effect of altitude on the secre- 

 tion of nectar has lately been the sub- 

 ject of frequent discussion, and it is 

 proposed in this paper to briefly re- 

 view conditions prevailing in Alpine 

 regions. It is a pi-oblem of great prac- 

 tical as well as theoretical interest to 

 the beekeeper. As neai'Iy the same 

 conditions prevail at high latitudes a? 

 at high elevations, it is desirable to 

 compare the floras of these two re- 

 gions. In both Alpine and Arctic dis- 

 tricts the plants are exposed to low 

 temperature and intense light. At an 

 elevation of a mile or more the air is 

 less dense, or thinner, and intercepts 

 less sunlight than in the plains. As 

 we advance in the summer toward the 

 North Pole the days become longer 

 and the earth receives more of the 

 sun's rays than farther south. In both 

 cases, also, the cold gi-adually in- 

 creases until plant life practically dis- 

 appears. Mountain regions differ 

 chiefly from northern region? in that 



the pressure of the air is less in the 

 former than in the latter. 



The two regions agree again in that 

 both have shoi't summers, and vegeta- 

 tion is obliged to "hurry up" in order 

 to flower and fruit before winter. In 



Muell) 1 I I "Flowers of the 



Alj^s" and of the "Fertilization of Flowers" 



Alpine districts the flowering period 

 is very short, not lasting more than 

 two or three months. Spring beauty 

 (Claytonia) and dog-tooth violet 

 (Erythronium), plants which in the 

 lowlands bloom in April, do not bloom 

 until June in Alpine meadows. But 

 the Alpine season soon catches up 

 with that of the lowlands, and in Au- 

 gust is ahead of it, goldenrod and gen- 



tians blooming earlier in the moun- 

 tains than in the lowlands. The same 

 thing occui's in high altitudes, as in 

 Alaska and Scandinavia, and barberry 

 ripens ten days earlier in northern 

 Norway than in southern Sweden. 



Alpine and Arctic Flowers 



Thus in Alpine regions there is no 

 spring and no autumn, only a short 

 summer, followed by a cold winter. 

 All the flowers must blossom in a 

 short time, and almost simultaneously 

 there appear a gi-eat variety of colors, 

 as yellow five-fingers, blue gentians, 

 red pinks and primroses, and saxi- 

 frages in evei-y color. There is the 

 same remai-kable variety of hues in an 

 Alaskan meadow. After his visit to 

 Alaska glaciers. Burroughs wrote of 

 the meadows: 



"Starred with flowers of every hue, 

 Gold and purple, white and blue, 

 Painted cup. Anemone, 

 Jacob's ladder, fleur-de-lis, 

 Orchid, harebell, shooting star, 

 Crane's-bill, lupine, seen afai'. 

 Primrose, poppy, saxifrage. 

 Pictured type on Nature's page." 



For six summers Hermann Mueller 

 investigated the flowers of the Alps, 

 and then published the results of his 

 observations in his book "Alpen- 

 blumen," or "Flowers of the Alps." 

 Mueller, indeed, died in the Tyrol. On 

 the day of his death he had written 

 a long letter to his son, and ho had no 

 premonition of his fate. Suddenly, on 

 the 25th of August, 1883, a pulmon- 

 ary attack closed his useful life. It 

 was fitting that a life devoted to the 

 study of highland flowers should come 

 to its close among them. According 

 to Mueller, many flowers of the Alps 

 have brighter colors, secrete more nec- 

 tar and are more strongly scented 

 than the same species growing on the 

 plains. Examples will be given later. 



