Borage and Mignonette. : 355 
bloom from the middle of June to the first of October. 
Their perfume scents the air for long distances, and the 
hum of bees that throng their flowers is like music to the 
apiarist’s ear. The honey, too, is just exquisite. These 
clovers are biennial, not blooming the first season, and 
dying after they bloom the second season. They perpetu- 
ate themselves, however, through the seed so as to really 
Fic. 158. 
i 
iguonette, 
Borage. 
become perennial. A disagreeable fact is that they have 
little value except forhoney. The Bokhara clover is only 
a variety of the above, though Mr. D. A. Jones thinks it 
quite superior to the others. 
The other clovers—lucerne, yellow trefoil, scarlet tre- 
foil, and alfalfa—have not proved of any value with us, 
perhaps owing to locality. The alfalfa is valued highly 
for bees in Colorado and other western States. 
Borage, Borago officinalis (Fig. 157), an excellent bee 
plant, blooms from June till frost, and is visited -by bees 
even in very rainy weather. It seems not to be a favorite, 
but is eagerly visited when all others fail to yield nectar. 
Mignonette, Reseda odorata (Fig. 158), blooms from the 
