414 



PASTURAGE AXD OVERSTOCKING. 



Fig. 174. 

 ASCLEPIAS TUEEROSA. PLEURISY ROOT. 



Fig. 175. 

 ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA. 



plant), Veronicas, Yellow Jessamine of the South,, 

 whose honey is poisonous. — (Dr. J. P. H. Brown.) 



Asclepiadaceae : — The common Jlilk- 

 weed (Fig-. 17.3), or Silkweed, Asclepias 

 cnrnuti, is much frequented by bees, 

 but these visits are often fatal to them. 

 All the grains of pollen of the Silkweed, 

 in each anther^ are collected in a com- 

 pact mass, inclosed in a sack ; these 

 sacks are united in pairs {a. Fig. 176) 

 by a kind of thread, terminated by a ^'s- ^'^^■ 



n • _1 1 rn i.1 1 POLLEN OF MILKWEED. 



small, viscous gland. These threads „ „ , ,, . 



' *= a, sacs ot pollen in 



stick to the feet. (h. Fig. 176) and often Mirs; b, the same at- 

 to the labial palpi (46) of the bees, who (Prom "A b c ot Bee- 

 cannot easily get rid of them, and perish. 



In some parts "f Ohio and "Western Illinois, a variety of the 

 common kind, the Asclepias SuUhaniii, does not present to 

 bees these difficulties to the same degree. We have seen bees 

 gathering honey freely on four or five different varieties 

 which grow in our neighborhood, and especially on the Tube- 



