BEE I'ASTUKAGE. 83 



trouble to the bees, is the pollen of the Silk-weed, which 

 in all the species has a singular form. Instead of being, as 

 is the case in most flowers, a fine dust, the pollen grains 

 are stuck together in little waxy masses or scales, and these 

 are joined together in pairs by the thread-like appendage 

 above noticed. These masses are, in the flower, each 

 lodged in a little pouch with only the attachment exposed, 

 and were it not for the agency of bees and other insects, 

 the pollen would not be dislodged from these pouches and 

 brought in contact with the pistil of the flower. When I 

 point out a loss among bees, I would like to give a reme- 

 dy, but here I am unable to do so. I am not sure but 

 honey enough is obtained by such bees as escape, to coun- 

 terbalance the loss. 



Whitewood, {Liriodendron Tulipifera), yields some- 

 thing eagerly sought for by the bees, but whether honey 

 or pollen, or both, I have never ascertained. Mr. Harbi- 

 son asserts it to be honey. I have never examined the 

 flowers. It is very scarce in Montgomery and Greene 

 Counties. Mr. Langstroth speaks of it as " one of the 

 greatest honey-producing trees in the world. As its blos- 

 soms expand in succession, new swarms wiU sometimes fill 

 their hives from this source alone." 



BASSWOOD VERY IMPOIITANT. 



Basswood, [Tilia Americana), is abundant in some pla- 

 ces, and yields honey clear and transparent as water, of a 

 delicious flavor, with a perceptible, yet not unpleasant 

 taste of mint. During the time this tree is in bloom, a 

 period of two or three weeks, in many sections, astonishing 

 quantities are obtained when the weather is favorable. It 

 is less likely to be ci>t off by bad weather, than other blos- 

 soms. A person once assured me that be had known ten 

 pounds of honey collected in a day, while this was in 

 flower, by one swarm. I have seen a statement by a wri- 



