Blossoming 



183 



Where these brightly blossomed trees have not 

 been able to form or ripen seed, in summers that 

 are past, they have left no tree children to succeed 

 them. So north of the latitude of Boston there 

 are not many wild trees which blossom brightly, 

 and yield plenty of honey. 



The locusts, with their long, dangling clusters 

 of white bean 

 flowers, are most 

 at home in the Ap- 

 palachian Moun- 

 tains and in the 

 Ohio Valley. 



The wild bees 

 of the north 

 woods have only 

 one very good 

 wild honey tree, 

 and that is the 

 linden. However 

 deep in the forest 

 lindens grow, bees 

 are guided to the dangling, greenish-yellow flow- 

 ers by their rich odor of nectar (Fig. 46) . Who- 

 ever tramps the woods, in linden blossom time, 

 might find the murmuring trees blindfold by his 

 senses of smell and of hearing. 



The wild-cherry trees, when they bloom, spread 

 their table for flies, and pollen is carried from 

 one wild-cherry blossom to another on the hairy 



Fig. 46. 



Flowers of the European linden, 

 lime or basswood. 



