SOURCES OF HONET. 63 



each little floret secretes so minute a quantity, that the 

 task of obtaining it is a slow one. It is only visited 

 when more copiously yielding flowers are scarce. Bush 

 Honeysuckle {Diervilla trifida), is a particular favorite. 



SINGULAR FATALITY ATTEIfDASTT OK SILK-WEED. 



Milk-weed or Silk-weed {Asclepias Corruti), fig. 11, is 

 another honey-yielding perennial, but a singular fatality 



Fig. 11. — MILK-WBED. 



befalls many bees while gathering honey from it. Mr. 

 Quinby observed during the period this plant was in 

 bloom, that a number of the bees belonging to hives 

 not full, were unable to ascend the sides to the comb ; 

 there would be sometimes thirty or more at the bot- 

 tom in the morning. On searching for the cause, 

 he found from one to ten, thin, yellow scales, of a 

 long pear-shape, and about the twentieth part of an 

 inch long, attached to their feet. At the small end, 

 was a black, thread-like substance, from a sixteenth 



