HONEY AND POLLEN PLANTS. 65 



visited by hive bees would occupy far too much space for a brief treat- 

 ise like this. Many plants -are therefore omitted which secrete nectar 

 freely but which are abundant only locally ; others are left out because 

 they secrete only at rare intervals, or under peculiar conditions, or are 

 visited by bees only when some better honey source fails; others again 

 because, though secreting well and readily yielding their honey or pol- 

 len stores to the bees, they are not often present in sufficient numbers 

 in any one locality to enable the bees to add materially to their surplus 

 stores. Such plants are, however, often of great value because they 

 cause the bees to rear brood during intervals between the times of stor- 

 ing surplus honey and thus keep the colonies populous for successive 

 harvests. 



Besides the main honey plants it would be easy to name for any local- 

 ity quite a number of secondary importance which are frequented by 

 honey bees, yet even though the localities were but a few miles apart 

 scarcely any two lists would agree either as to the plants to be included 

 or as to their relative importance. The following honey and pollen pro- 

 ducing plants are therefore of wide distribution or of special importance 

 in certain localities. 



For convenience separate lists are given for the three sections of the 

 United States made by the parallels of 35 and 40 N. The flora of the 

 western portion of each section differs of course greatly from that of 

 the eastern part of the same section. Only the most important honey 

 yielders among those of local interest in the extreme Southwest and the 

 West have been included in the lists, and the chief range of each has 

 been noted. An eifort has been made to indicate by the type the rela- 

 tive importance of the plants as pollen and honey producers. 



NORTH AND NORTHEAST. 



[Above 40 N.] 



Red or Soft Maple (Acer rubruni) April. 



Alders (Alnus) ' April. 



Elm ( Ulmus) April. 



Willows (Salix) -. Apr.-May. 



Dandelion (Taraxacum taraxacum = T. officlnale of Gray's Manual) Apr.-May, 



Sugar, Eock,oi Hard Maple (Acer saccharum = A. sacchariuum of Gray's 



Manual) Apr.-May. 



Junebcrry, or Service Berry (Amelanchier canadensis) May. 



Wild Crab Apples (Pijrus) May. 



GOOSEBERRY and CURRANT (Kibes) May. 



PEACH, CHERRY, and PLUM (Pruuus) May. 



PEAR and APPLE (Pyrus] May. 



Huckleberries and Blueberries (Gaylussacia and raccinium) May-June. 



COMMON, BLACK, or YELLOW LOCUST ( Robinia pseudacacia} May-June. 



European Horse-chestnut (^Esciilus hippocastanum) May-June. 



Common Barberry (Herberts vulgaris) May-June. 



TULIP TREE, or " WHITEWOOD " (Liriodendron tulipifera) May- June. 



Grapevines ( Fitis) May-June. 



Rape (Brassicanap us) May-June. 



