THE PASTURAGE OF BEES, 41 



Apple, pear, and currant trees are of great value to 

 bees, furnishing them with rich and large stores of 

 honey. 



Almond, cherry, peaeJi, and apricot are also honey-yield- 

 ing plants. 



Field-mustard (Sinapii^ arvensis), which is a weed, 

 superabounding in some districts, frequently covering 

 our corn-fields with its yellow flowers, is an invaluable 

 thing for bees. In Yorkshu-e and Derbyshire this plant 

 is called ketlock, in Lanarkshire it is called skelloch, and in 

 Wigtownshire it is termed ranches. Here, in Lancashire 

 and Cheshire, it is called the yellow flower. It continues 

 a long time in flower, and the honey gathered from it is 

 clear, and soon crystallises. The flowers of turnip, cabbage, 

 and all the brassica tribe, like those of field-mustard, are 

 exceedingly tempting to bees. 



The flowers of field-beans are about as rich in honey as 

 they can be. There is some mystery as to the means em- 

 ployed to extract it from bean-flowers, which are tubular 

 in shape, and of considerable thickness and depth. The 

 honey, of course, lies at the bottom of these — deeper than 

 the length of a bee's proboscis. The tubes are pierced or 

 tapped near their bottoms, and through the holes thus 

 made the bees extract much rich treasure. It has been 

 said that bees are unable to pierce the tubes of the 

 flowers, and that the holes are made by humble-bees, 

 which have greater powers. No one can watch humble 

 or earth bees at work in a field of beans, and remain in 

 doubt they do some work in this way. They push their 

 trunks through the petals of the flowers with a view to 

 reach their honey ; but the question is. Can bees make 

 . holes for themselves 1 We have never seen a honey-bee 

 make a hole through the petals of a bean-flower ; but, from 

 the scarcity of humble-bees in some neighbourhoods 

 where the flowers of many acres of beans are found well 



