OR, MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 429 



honey is fine, as we should expect, as it belongs with the 

 clovers, to the great family of L,eguminos8e. From its rapid 

 growth, beautiful form, and handsome foliage, it would rank 

 among our first shade-trees, were it not that it is so tardy in 

 spreading its canopy of green, and so liable to ruinous attack 

 by the borers, which last peculiarity it shares with the incom- 



FiG. 233. 



Partridge Pea. — Original. 



parable maples. Washing the trunks of the trees in June and 

 July with soft soap will in great part remove this trouble. 



In June, mammoth red clover (Trifolium pratense), (Fig. 216) 

 comes out in one mass of crimson. This, unlike common red 

 clover, has flower- tubes short enough for even the ligula of the 

 black bee. It is pretty coarse for hay, but excellent for pas- 

 ture and for green manuring. The partridge-pea (Cassia 

 chamaecrista), (Fig. 233), furnishes abundant nectar, and, like 



