BEE PASTURAGE. 



57 



clovers (white, alsike, crimson, and mammoth red), with alfalfa and 

 melilot, chestnut, linden or basswood, Indian corn, buckwheat lire- 

 weed, willow-herb, knotweeds, mints, cleome, golden-rods, Spanish 

 needle, and asters may be cited as the cbief sources of pollen and 

 honey; and of these the tulip tree, locust, white clover, alfalfa, melilot, 

 linden, and buckwheat furnish most of the surplus honey. The fruit 

 blossoms, with the exception of raspberry, come so early that a small 

 proportion only of the colonies are sufficiently strong to store surplus, 



FIG. 44. Willow herb (Epilobium, anguftifolium) . A, young flower : , stigma turned back ; a, anthers ; 

 I, lobe or pod. B, older flower: s, stigma turned forward; a, anthers; i, lobe. C, spike of flowers. 

 D, section of pollen grain : e, extiiie; i, intine ; ti, thick intine ; /, fovilla. E, growing point of pollen 

 grain : e, e, extine ; i. i, intine ; /, fovilla ; pt, pollen tube. (From Cheshire.) 



and of course this statement applies with still more force to plants which 

 blossom before apple, pear, cherry, etc. Some of the clovers, mustard, 

 rape, cultivated teasel, chestnut, barberry, sumac, coral berry, pleurisy 

 root, fireweed, borage, mints, willow-herb, Spanish needles, cleome, etc., 

 though yielding well, are only found abundantly over certain areas, 

 and do not therefore supply any considerable portion of the honey that 

 appears on the market, though when any of them are plentiful in a 

 certain locality the bee keeper located there will find in nearly all cases 

 that the surplus honey is greatly increased thereby. 



