1904 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



53 



PHACELIA TANACETIFOLIA. 



A Pretty Story of California's New Honey Plant. 

 By Henry E. Horn. 



YEARS AGO, when I first began 

 bee-keeping in Southern Califor- 

 nia, I noticed in the early sea- 

 son the field-bees coming home loaded 

 with at least three main distinct and 

 different colored kinds of pollen. Some 

 carried a creamy-looking variety, some 

 a deep orange, and some came wig- 

 gling up the alighting board with enor- 

 mous lumps of a sky-blue color. I 

 soon found out and knew the particu- 

 lar species of flowers and their plants 

 furnishing each particular kind of pol- 

 len; but as they all looked to be mere 

 weeds and so-called wild flowers, I 

 paid no special attention to them any 

 more. 



Our honey, whenever we get a crop, 

 is derived from the orange, the sages, 

 and wild buckwheat, mainly, and these 

 are so abundant in a good season that 

 bee-keepers hardly ever notice any 

 other sources; while in a poor season 

 everything is poor— and thus it has 

 come about that Californians never dis- 

 covered, or recognized, the rare virtues, 

 from a bee-keeper's point of view, of 

 the modest and beautiful Phacelia 

 tanacetifolia. 



It was a stranger from far away 

 Germany who, botanically, discovered 

 our brilliant golden poppy, and give 

 her his own name, "Esscholtzia," and 

 it was in a hidden garden nook on the 

 far-away banks of the Rhine where 

 she had absent-mindedly wandered, 

 that our sky-blue "Thousandpretty"' 

 was first loved, and being loved, 

 watched over and handled. And the 

 great good-look of "Thousandpretty" 

 was that her lover was a true friend 

 of Apis mellifera a.s well. Of course 

 Apis and Pretty soon found one 

 another and one can easily imagine the 

 delight with which human eyes 

 watched the mutual approachment, 

 and the prolonged and oft repeated 

 visits of "Apis" to "Pretty." 



Now all this happened about ten or 

 twelve years ago. Today, among the 

 bee-men of Central Europe Phacelia 

 seed is an article of commerce, like 

 clover or rape; and many are the 

 praises sung in its favor. 



Phacelia grows about 15 to 24 inches 

 high, branching out, or not, according 



to room. Its foliage is fern-like, and of 

 a color varying from dark green to pur- 

 ple brown. It furnishes bee pasturage 

 in about six weeks from seed. Its 

 flower-stalk forms a sort of an 

 involute, unrolling as it goes, its 

 native name, "fiddleneck," explains 

 this very well. The flowers are sky- 

 blue, star-shaped, very shallow, aver- 

 aging, perhaps, one-eighth of an inch 

 in depth, and one-quarter inch in diam- 

 eter. 



The bloom lasts about six weeks. It 

 furnishes nectar all day long, but 

 sometimes more, sometimes less. The 

 honey is light amber, sometimes light 

 green, and of a mild aromatic flavor. 

 The sky-blue pollen comes from it 

 alone. 



Its fodder value is rated next to clo- 

 ver, and cows fed on it have shown a 

 marked increase in the yield of milk. 

 But cattle will not take it alone by 

 itself at first, for a while it must be 

 mixed with something they are used 

 to. And it must be fed green. It will 

 grow where weeds grow, early in the 

 season or late, and for green-manuring 

 Phacelia is said to equal the pea. 



Our wheats and corns and things 

 were once but wild grasses somewhere. 

 Like them, our "Thousandpretty" may 

 yet turn out to be a real discovery. 



Riverside, Cal., Feb. 12, 1904. 



LAYING AVORKERS. 



They Are Sometimes Wrongfully Accused. 

 By Adrian Getaz. 



SOME TIME ago, the question was 

 raised in the European bee pa- 

 pers whether there is only one 

 laying worker in a colony or whether 

 there is a large number of them. 



The discussion began by Mr. L. Jas- 

 pard asserting that having proceeded 

 to the investigation of a colony affect- 

 ed with so-called "laying workers" he 

 finally found instead of a real "laying 

 worker" a very imperfect queen, ex- 

 actly similar, or nearly so. to an ordi-. 

 nary worker except that with a very 

 close examination the pollen baskets 

 and other work organs were imper- 

 fectly developed. Later on Mr. 

 Lacoppe Arnold stated that he had 

 met two similar cases and boldly said 

 that there was probably no such thing 

 as laying workers, and and that all 

 such cases were likely due to the pres- 



