The Life of the Bee 
plant within a certain radius from the 
hive. 
“ If we carefully note the different direc- 
tions in which these foragers fly, and 
observe in detail the harvest they gather 
from the various plants around, we shall 
find that the workers distribute themselves 
over the flowers in proportion not only to 
the numbers of flowers of one species, but 
also to their melliferous value. Nay, 
more — they make daily calculations as to 
the means of obtaining the greatest possi- 
ble wealth of saccharine liquid. In the 
spring, for instance, after the willows have 
bloomed, when the fields still are bare, 
and the first flowers of the woods are the 
one resource of the bees, we shall see 
them eagerly visiting. gorse and violets, 
lungworts and anemones. But, a few days 
later, when fields of cabbage and colza 
begin to flower in sufficient abundance, we 
shall find that the bees will almost entirely 
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