June Plants. 



275 



the blackberry. Corn yields largely of honey as well as pol- 

 len, and the teasel, 'Dipsaeiis fullmvum (Fig. 146), is said, not 

 only by Mr. Doolittle, but by English and German apiarists, 

 to yield richly of beautiful honey. This last has commercial 

 importance. The blackberry opens its petals in June, and also 

 the fragrant locust, which, from its rapid growth, beautiful 

 form and handsome foliage, 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 



Fig. 146. 



Teasel. 



last peculiarity it shares with the incomparable maples. 

 Washing the trunks of the trees in June and July with soft 

 soap will in great part remove this trouble. 



In June the Mammoth Red Clover, Trifoliiim pratense, 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 pasture and 

 for green manuring. The Partridge pea, C'as,iia eJmrruecrista 

 (Fig. 147), furnishes abundant jiectar, and like the Cow pea 

 of the South has extra floral as well as floral glands. Lupine, 

 Imipinua perennis, and gill or ground ivy, Nepeta gkchoma, 

 commenced t« blossom in May and now are fully out.- This 

 last is a mint, a near relative of catnip. The Matrimony Vine, 

 Lyeium vvkjare, and the beautiful honey locust, Gliditsehm 



