404 



THB bek-kekper's guidb ; 



on others they are all staminate, having no pistils. On the 

 former, bees can gather only honey, on the latter only pollen. 

 That the willow furnishes both honey and pollen is attested 

 by the fact that I saw both kinds of trees, the pistillate and 

 the staminate, thronged with bees the past season. Indeed, 

 the willow furnishes abundant honey nearly every spring. 



Fig. 203. 



Mesqaite. — From Dept, of Agriculture. 



Judas Tree. — Original. 



Were bees numerous thus early, and were the weather propi- 

 tious, the honey from willow would be very important. It is 

 in stimulating breeding. The willow, too, from its elegant 

 form and silvery foliage, is one of our finest shade-trees. It 

 grows everywhere in the United States. The mesquite (Proso- 

 pis juliflora), a shrub or tree of the bean family (Fig. 203), is 

 exceedingly valuable for honey from Texas to Arizona. The 

 honey is excellent in quality and very abundant. It blooms 

 from April on to July. 



In the south of Michigan, and thence southward to Ken- 

 tucky, and even beyond, the Judas tree, or red-bud (Cercis 

 canadensis), (Fig. 204), is not only worthy of cultivation as a 



