AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



a honey-plant. The flowers of the 

 borage family are often at first red 

 and latf change to blue, and several 

 ipecii at ' filled wil h coloring ma- 

 terial, a, the sheep pastures of New 

 Mexico there grows blood purslane 

 ( Plagiobothrys arizonicus) ; "when the 

 sheep find a patch of it, ii colo 

 their heads red clear to the ears." 



In the mint family (Labiatae) and 

 figwort family (Scrophulariaceae) theri 

 are man) bee flowers, which stand 

 nearlj horizontal and are mostly 2- 

 lipped. According to the way the lips 

 have developed the larger flow, i 

 hibit strange fantastic forms, which 

 mimic the heads of reptiles, animals, 

 or inanimati such are the 



turtlehead, snapdragon, mi 

 flower, toadflax, foxglove, skullcap, 

 shoe-flow er, pa inti d i up and i 

 head. The species in both families 

 number nearlj 5,000, and are chiefly 

 herbaceous. Among the more im- 

 portant honey-plants in the mint 

 family are the sages, catnip, hoar- 

 hound, pennyroyal and motherwort; 

 but in the figwort family honey- 

 plants are rare, perhaps the best 



n being the figwoi 

 family promises to be of much bene- 

 fit to the bi eept locally. 

 ( bigs. 6, 7 and 8.) 



Regular flowers, it will be noticed, 

 cither 

 face the sky or the earth; while ir- 

 regular flowers always stand more or 

 less horizontal. In the dense flower- 

 cluster of the horse-chestnut the lat- 

 eral flowers are irregular, and the 

 single terminal flower is perfectly 



A vertical flower is ap- 

 proached by insects from all sides 

 with equal ease, and the forces which 

 might tend to change its form are in 

 equilibrium, or counterbalance each 

 oilier, as in the buttercup and straw- 

 berry; 1ml when a flower stand hori- 

 like the snapdragon or sage, 

 lues nearly always alight on the 

 ide of the corolla. The lower' 

 -r, i -in, i ransformed into a lip, 

 which serves as a landing stage; ami 

 the upper petals are modified into a 

 helmet t" protect the anthers from 

 i, mi. A bilabiate flower, is. after all, 

 not such a great marvel. I big. 9.) 



So long as a flower is flat like a 

 plate, it attracts a varied company of 

 insects; but as soon as it becomes bi- 

 lateral many insects either cannot 

 find the nectar or are unable to reach 

 it, with the inevitable result that the 

 visitors are restricted chiefly to bees. 

 None but bees can learn from obser- 

 vation to find the nectar of fennel- 

 flower. No bees but bumblebees have 

 tongues long enough to reach the 

 nectar of the bee larkspur, and none 



Fig. 9. — Two varieties uf the monkey flowei 

 nUebee flower. Note the horizomital 

 ii of blossoms. 



but bumblebees are strong enough to 

 push their way into flowers like 

 snapdragon. 



The bee-flowers of Europe are es- 

 sentially the same as those of North 

 i anil billing to the same 

 genera and families, but the species 

 are often different. In the I tei man 

 and Swiss flora there an- 4S2 bee- 

 lb. u vi s. i '1 whit It 152 are w liitv and 

 yellow, and 330 red, violet and blue. 

 I [i in. bee 3 and bumblebt es have 

 In in . ibsi r\ ed ti > make 2b per vent 



i sit s to the red and blue flow- 

 ers than to the white and yellow. 

 East of the Rocky Mountains and 

 north ot Tennessee there are 366 red 



d put pi' flow vi s, and 519 blue 

 and blue-purple flowers; and a large 



nt of them are bee-flowers. 

 Why are so many bee-flowers red 

 and blue, especially blue? There is 



on to suppose thai bit 1 



oration givi bees an aesthi t ic pleas 



nt on the other hand I have 



shown experimentally that tin > can 

 readily distinguish blue from other 

 hues. So keen an observer as the 

 honeybee might easily learn, to asso- 

 ciate blue with flowers likely to sup- 

 ply it with nectar. In primitive 

 genera in which the corolla has been 

 little modified blue is almost entirely 

 absent, as in (be yellow buttercups, 

 fivefingers and St. John's-worts ; and 

 in the white water-plantains and 

 saxifrages, and the yellow and white 

 mustards. While there are excep- 

 tions, it is certain that blue colora- 

 tion is correlated in some way with 

 the high specialization of the corolla 

 Whatever the origin of floral colors, 

 there is no doubt but what they are 

 an advantage, and that in the ab- 

 sence of insects, especially bees, they 

 would never have been evolved. 



Bees have been the most important 

 agents in the development not only 

 of bee-flowers, but of most conspicu- 

 ous blossoms. We cannot imagine 

 what the world would have been 

 without them, or estimate the en- 

 joyment that would have been lost, 

 or the power for good that would 

 have been forever missing; but we 

 know that humanity would have been 

 less perfect than it is today. They 

 have been the humble, unconscious 

 instruments in producing results that 

 enter into the very foundations of 

 in, itbrn civilization. 



Intensive Beekeeping 



By F. W. Sladen, Apiarist, Dominion 

 Experimental Farms. 



IN a locality where colonies are 

 ready to swarm a month before 

 the principal honey-flow begins, 

 an increased number of bees can be 

 raised for honey production by win- 

 tering two queens in the hive. 



This conclusion has resulted from 

 investigations the writer has been 

 making into conditions at Ottawa, 



in Black huckleberry. A 

 with bell-shaped corolla 



