224 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



tica acutiloha), and various others of the crowfoot family, as 

 also many species of cress, which belong to the mustard 

 family, etc., all of which are valuable and important. 

 * The maples (Fig. 73), which are all valuable honey plants, 

 also contribute to the early stores. Especially valuable are 

 the silver maples (Acer dasycarpum), and the red or soft 

 maples {Acer rubrum), as they bloom so very early, long 

 before the leaves appear. The bees work on these, here in 

 Michigan, the first week of April, and often in March. They 

 are also magnificent shade trees, especially those that have 

 the weeping habit. Their early bloom is very pleasing, their 

 summer form and foliage beautiful, while their flaming tints 

 in autumn are indescribable. The foreign maples, sycamore, 

 Acer pseudo-platanus, and Norway, Acer platanoides, are 

 also very beautiful. Whether superior to ours as honey 

 plants, I am unable to say. 



The willows, too (Fig. 74), rival the maples in the early 

 period of bloom. Some are very early, blossoming in March, 

 while others, like the white willow (Salix alba) (Fig. 74), 

 bloom in May. The flowers on one tree or bush of the willow 

 are all pistillate, that is, have pistils, but no stamens, while 



Pig. 16.— Judas TVee 



on others they are all staminate, having no pistils. On the 

 former, they can gather only honey, on the latter only pollen. 

 That the willow furnishes both honey and pollen is attested 

 by the fact that I saw both kinds of trees, the pistillate and 

 the staminate, thronged with bees the past season. The wil- 

 low, too, from its elegant form and silvery foliage, is one of 

 our finest shade trees. 



