26 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 
black, cross and poor winterers. South. of these is a belt of gray, 
gentle bees,—the Carniolans, Dalmatians, Banaters, and Caucasians. 
Farther south all of these races are increasingly yellow and have 
their gentle temperaments somewhat modified. South of this belt 
is a yellow belt, closely typified by the Italians and the Cyprians. 
East and to the south again are found cross, propolis gathering, and 
very excitable bees, the extreme types being the Egyptians and the 
Tunisians. : 
There remains yet to be discussed a very successful bee pro- 
duced by crossing and known as the Cyprio-Carniolan bees. This 
cross is made by mating daughters of pure Cyprian queens to drones 
of Carniolan blood. It has been found that the male bee carries the 
temperament and the queen bee the honey gathering and the pro- 
lific characteristics. This cross unites the desirable qualities of the 
Carniolans with the great prolific and honey gatherng powers of 
the Cyprians, and thus produces a strain most valuable from a com- 
mercial standpoint. A practical difficulty in growing these bees is 
that the type has not been established, and breeding from the 
second generation and the third generation results disastrously, in 
that the progeny revert to the original characters and do not breed 
true. This necessitates continuous breeding from pure stock. 
BEES AND FLOWERS—HONEY PRODUCING PLANTS 
One of the most fascinating things in nature is the study af 
the inter-dependence of flowers and insects, more especially the 
bees. How many of us in our daily rounds stop to think why ali 
the unfolding of beauty displayed by the little flower at our feet? 
Why these bright variegated colors and all this fragrance and these 
stores of sweets? Is it a startling statement to say that these things 
displayed by the flower, that this banquet spread, are for the insects, 
—for the humming bees that pass by unheeded or shunned by thé 
majority of us all? How we may well envy the little busy fellows as 
they musically ply their way, flying from place to place on the 
bright spring days, in among these gorgeous flowers! 
Ecology, the science of the relation of insects to their environ- 
ment, and botany tell us that the flowers through a long process 
of natural selection, have developed these bright colors for the pur- 
pose of attracting insect visitors which, in turn, render the flower 
a valuable service as will be seen later. Many flowers in addition 
. 
