428 



THE BEK-KKBPKR S GUIDB ; 



It blooms between the usual fruit-blossoms and clover. It 

 yields nectar in wet weather, which most plants fail to do, and 

 the honey is unexcelled. Bees sometimes gather the juice 

 from very ripe raspberries. This colors the honey red. The 

 blackberry comes quite late, some days after the raspberry. I 

 think it is far less valuable as a honey-plant. Corn yields 

 largely of honey as well as pollen, and the teasel (Dipsacus 

 fullonum), (Fig. 231), is said, not only by Mr. Doolittle, but by 

 English and German apiarists, to yield richly of beautiful 



Fig. 232. 



Commo7i Locust. — From Anifrkiin Bee Journal. 



honey. It blossoms at the same time with basswood, and the 

 honey is much thinner at first. This last has commercial 

 importance. In central New York it is raised in large quanti- 

 ties. The spinous fruit-heads are used in preparing woolen 

 cloth. Machinery is now taking the place of teasel, and as no 

 plant can be profitably grown for honey alone, this plant will 

 be of little importance in the future. The fragrant locust 

 (Robinia pseudacacia), (Fig. 232), opens its petals in June 

 opportunely, for it comes between fruit-bloom and clover. 

 Unfortunately, it furnishes nectar only occasionally. The 



