358 



June Honey Plants. 



family (Fig. i6o), ai-e thiop.ged with bees during the sea- 

 son of bloom. The first and last are of commercial import- 

 ance, while very few of our native plants afford so much 

 nectar, are such favorites with the bees, and are so inde- . 

 pendent of weather as motherwort ( Fig 1 6 1 ). It is crowded 

 with bees from the dawn of its bloom till the last flower 

 withers. By cutting it back in May it can be made to 



Fig. 163. 



Fig. 162. 



PoUpn of Milk- Weed on Bee^s Foot. 



Black Mustard. 



blossom just at the dearth of nectar-secreting bloom ; other- 

 wise it comes in June and early July, just when Linden is 

 yielding its precious harvest. Few plants are more desir- 

 able to sow in waste places. 



The silk or milk-weed furnishes abundant nectar from 

 June to frost, as there are several species of the genus 

 Asclepias, which is wide-spread in our country. Indeed 

 pleurisy root or butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, is the 

 bee-plant that Mr. Heddon has praised so highly. He 

 thinks it one of ourbest indigenous honey-plants. These are 

 the plants which have large pollen masses which often ad- 

 here to the legs of the bees (Fig 162), and sometimes 



