CLOVER. 381 
7O1. Of all the sources from which bees derive their 
supplies, white clover (Fig. 123), is usually the most 
Fig. 123, 
WHITE CLOVER. 
important. It yields large quantities of very pure white 
honey, and wherever it abounds, the bee will find a rich 
harvest. In most parts of this country it seems to be the 
chief reliance of the Apiary. Blossoming at a season of 
the year when the weather is usually both dry and hot, and 
the bees gathering its honey after the sun has dried off the 
dew, it is ready to be sealed over almost at once. 
It is at the blossoming of this important plant that the 
main crop of honey usually begins, and that the bees prop- 
agate in the greatest number. 
The flowers of red clover (fig. 124) also produce a large 
quantity of nectar; unfortunately its corollas are usually 
too deep for the tongue of our bees. Yet sometimes, in 
Summer, they can reach the nectar, either because its 
corollas are shorter on account of dryness, or because they 
are more copiously filled. 
