Fuly Honey Plants. 371 
from its spines, and the second from its round flower-head. 
It promises well, and now that the government distributes 
its seeds we shall soon know fully as to its virtues. 
That beautiful and valuable honey plant from Minne- 
sota, Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, cleome, or the 
Rocky Mountain bee-plant, Cleome integrifolia (Fig. 175), 
if self-sown, or sown in the fall, blooms by the middle of 
July and lasts for long weeks. Nor can anything be more 
gay than these brilliant flowers, alive with bees all through 
the long fall. This should be planted in fall in drills two 
feet apart, the plants six inches apart in the drills. It will 
not grow if planted in the spring. The seeds, which grow 
in pods, are very numerous, and are said to be valuable for 
chickens. It does best on light soil, This is one of our 
most promising plants for sowing on waste places. Now 
commence to bloom the numerous Eupatoriums, or bone- 
sets, or thoroughworts (Fig. 176), which fill the marshes 
of our country, and the hives as well, with their rich 
golden nectar. These are precursors of that profusion of 
this composite order, whose many species are even now 
budding, in preparation for the sea of flowers which will 
deck the marsh-lands of August and September. Wild 
bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, which like the thistles is of 
importance to the apiarist, also blooms in July. As before 
remarked, this is one of the plants whose long flower tubes 
are pierced by the Xylocopa bees. Then the honey-bees 
help to gather the abundant nectar. This is a near relative 
of the horse-mint which, as will be seen, it closely recem- 
bles. The golden honey-plant, Actinomeris squarrosa, so 
praised by Dr. Tinker, and rattle-snake root, Nabalus 
altissimus, which swarms with bees all the day long, are 
also composite plants. 
The little shrub of our marshes, appropriately named 
button-bush, Cephalanthus occidentalis (Fig. 177), also 
shares the attention of the bees with the linden; while api- 
arists of the South find sour-wood, or sorrel tree, Oxyden- 
drum arboreum (Fig. 178), a valuable honey tree. We 
have this plant on our college grounds, but it is not hardy 
here, as it kills back nearly every winter. This belongs 
to the Heath family, which includes the far-famed heather 
