Practical Conclusions. 291 



sun-flowers, the brilliancy is due to the involucre, or bracts: 

 which serve as a frill to decorate the more modest flowers. 



The great Willow Herb, or Fire Weed, Epilobium angtistifo- 

 lium, is often the source of immense honey harvests. The 

 downy seeds blow to great distances, and finding a lodgment, 

 their vitality makes them burst forth whenever brush is burned 

 or forests fires rage. Hence the name. Fire Weed. Another 

 excellent fall honey plant of wide range is the Coral Berry 

 or Indian Currant, Symphoriearpus vulgaris. The honey prod- 

 uct of this plant is worthy its name. I close this account 

 with mention of another CHeome, the famous Spider Plant (Fig. 

 162), Gleome pungens. This plant thrives best in rich, damp 

 clay soil. It is only open for a little time before night-fall 

 and at early dawn; but when open its huge drops of nectar 

 keep the bees wild with excitement, calling them up even be- 

 fore daylight, and enticing them to the field long after dusk. 



I have thus mentioned the most valuable honey plants of 

 our country. Of course there are many omissions. Let all 

 apiarists, by constant observation, help to fill up the list. 



BOOKS ON BOTANY. 



I am often asked what books are best to make apiarists 

 botanists. I am glad to answer this question, as the study of 

 botany will not only be valuable discipline, but will also fur- 

 nish abundant pleasure, and give important practical informa- 

 tion. Gray's Lessons and Manual of Botany, in one volume, 

 published by Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co., New York, 

 is the most desirable treatise on this subject. A more recent 

 work by Prof. C. E. Bessey, and published by Henry Holt 

 & Co., is also very excellent. 



PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 



It will pay weU for the apiarist to decorate his grounds with 

 soft and silver maples, for their beauty and early bloom. If 

 his soil is rich, sugar maples and lindens may well serve a 

 similar purpose. The Judas and tulip trees, both North and 

 South, may well be made to ornament his home. For vines, 

 obtain the wistarias. 



