344 April Honey Plants. 
Early in spring there are many scattering wild: flowers, 
as skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus feetidus, which supplies 
abundant pollen and some honey; the blood-root, San- 
guinaria Canadensis, liver-leaf, Hepatica acutiloba, and 
various others of the crow-foot family, as also many 
species of cress, which belong to the mustard family, and 
the gay dandelion, Taraxacum dens-leonis, which keeps 
on blooming for weeks, etc., all of which are valuable and 
important. 
The maples, which are all valuable honey plants, also con- 
Red Maple, 
A et aaa ¥ Female blossoms, 
tribute to the early stores. Especially valuable are the silver 
maples, Acer dasycarpum, the red or soft maples, Acer 
rubrum (Fig. 145), and the box elder or ash-leaf maple 
Negundo aceroides, as they bloom so very early, long 
before the leaves appear. The bees work on these, here 
