BEE PASTUBAGE. 95 



foot, secured by this appendage. Both sepals and 

 petals of this flower are re-curved, that is, turned backr 

 ward towards the stem, forming five acute angles, or 

 notches, just the thing fo'r a trap for a bee with 

 strings of heads on its toes ; when at work they are 

 very liable to slip a foot into one of these notches ; the 

 flower being thick and firm, holds it fast ; pulling only 

 draws it deeper into the wedge-like cavity. The. bee 

 must either perish or break loose ; their instincts fail 

 them in this emergency ;■ they know nothing about 

 getting it out by a gentle pull the other way. I 

 never saw one do it except by accident. By' examin- 

 ing the buds of this plant just before opening, I found 

 this fatal "appendage, by which great numbers of our 

 bees are lost.* When I point out a loss among our 

 bees, I would like to give a remedy; but here I am at 

 a loss, unless all these plants are destroyed, and this is 

 iinpracticable in many places. After all Lam not suire 

 but honey enough is obtained by such bees as do es- 

 cape, to counterbalance what we lose. This would de- 

 pend on the amount of honey yielded by other flowers 

 at the same time. 



"Whitewood (Liriodendron Tulipifera) yields some- 

 thing eagerly sought for by the bees, but whether hon- 

 ey, or pollen, or both, I have never been able to ascer- 

 tain. All the flowers of this kind, with u§, are too 



* In Wood's Class-book of Botany, "Order Oil.," in a plate showing 

 the parts of this plant, it is thus described : "Fig. 11, a pair of pollen 

 masses suqiended &om the glands at an angle of the antheridium,"&c. 



One, when reading this simple botanical description, and seeing the 

 jlate, or the Botanist with his glasses, when he minutely inspects the 

 parts, would not auspeet anything fetal to bees abov.t it. 



