82 BEE PASTUEAGE. 



SINGULAB FATALITY ATTENDANT ON SILKWEBD. 



Silkweed, {Asdepias Gornuti), is another honey -yielding 

 perennial, but a singular fatality befalls many bees while gath- 

 ering honey from it, that I never have seen noticed. I have 

 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 some times 

 thirty or more at the bottom in the morning. On searching 

 for the cause, I 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 to an eighth of an 

 iich in length ; on this stem was a glutinous matter, that 

 firmly adhered to each foot or claw of the bee, preventing 

 it from climbing the sides of the hive. I also found this 

 appendage attached to bees clustered outside of full hives, 

 but it appeared to be no inconvenience to them. Among 

 the scales of wax, and waste matter that accumulates 

 about the swarms to some extent, I found a great many 

 of these scales which the bees had worked from their feet. 

 The question then arose, were these scales a foreign sub- 

 stance, accidentally entangled in their claws, or was it a 

 natural formation? It was soon decided. From the 

 number of bees carrying it, I was satisfied that if it were 

 the product of any flower, it belonged to a species some- 

 what abundant. I made a close examination of all such as 

 were then in bloom. I found the flowers of the Silk-weed 

 or MUk-weed, sometimes holding a dead bee by the foot, 

 secured by this appendage. Both sepals and petals of this 

 flower are turned backward towards the stem, forming 

 five acute angles or notches, just the trap for a bee with 

 this attachment. 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, and pulling only draws it deeper in the 

 wedge-like cavity. The appendage which causes so much 



