July Honey Plants, 371 



from its spines, and the second from its round flower-head. 

 It promises well, and now that the government distributes 

 its seeds we shall soon know fully as to its virtues. 



That beautiful and valuable honey plant from Minne- 

 sota, Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, cleome, or the 

 Rocky Mountain bee-plant, Cleome integrifolia (Fig. 175), 

 if self-sown, or sown in the fall, blooms by the middle of 

 July and lasts for long weeks. Nor can anything be more 

 gay than these brilliant flowers, alive with bees all through 

 the long fall. This should be planted in fall in drills two 

 feet apart, the plants six inches apart in the drills. It will 

 not grow if planted in the spring. The seeds, which grow 

 in pody, are very numerous, and are said to be valuable for 

 chickens. It does best on Hght soil. This is one of our 

 most promising plants for sowing on waste places. Now 

 commence to bloom the numerous Eupatoriums, en- bone- 

 sets, or thoroughworts (Fig. 176), which fill the marshes 

 of our country, and the hives as well, with their rich 

 golden nectar. These are precursors of that profusion of 

 this composite order, whose many species are even now 

 budding, in preparation for the sea of flowers which will 

 deck the marsh-lands of August and September. Wild 

 bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, which like the thistles is of 

 importance to the apiarist, also blooms in July. As before 

 remarked, this is one of the plants wliose long flower tubes 

 are pierced by the Xylocopa bees. Then the honey-bees 

 help to gather the abundant nectar. This is a near relative 

 of the horse-mint .which, as will be seen, it closely resem- 

 bles. The golden honey-plant, Actinomeris squarrosa, so 

 iDraised by Dr. Tinker, and rattle-snake root, Nabalus 

 altissimus, which swarms with bees all the day long, are 

 also composite plants. 



The little shrub of our marshes, appropriately named 

 button-bush, Cephalanthus occidentalis '(Fig. 177)) also 

 shares the attention of the bees with the linden ; while api- 

 arists of the South find sour-wood, or sorrel tree, Oxyden- 

 drum arborcutn (Fig. 17S), a valuable honey tree. Wc 

 have this plant on our college grounds, but it is not hardy 

 here, as it kills back nearly every winter. This belongs 

 to the Heath family, which includes the far-famed heathei 



