120 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Vor.. XXVII, 1920 
beaten low from its high line of flight by treacherous currents 
met its death in the river. 
The honey bee seems Jess efficient in its movement than the 
small bumble bee, which usually visits only fresh flowers and in- 
serts its proboscis without experiment in the right grove, while 
the honey bee visits old dilapidated flowers as well as fresh ones, 
hovers sometimes before it makes a decision as to which flower 
to visit and occasionally finds difficulty in making entrance. 
Again when a dull, warm, blue-haze-wrapt day blended the 
vivid colors in a soft mosaic scheme, a sudden shower drove the 
large bumble bee to shelter. Heels upward it clung to the under 
surface of a flower cluster, its back fur coat protected from the 
drops ; yet its small velvet coated collaborator diligently and even 
more vigorously beseiged the trembling rain-pelted flowers. The 
honey bee laboriously persisted for nearly half an hour then some- 
what reluctantly disappeared, as finally, but more slowly did the 
small bumble bee, leaving the soundly sleeping big bumble bee 
swinging in the steady drip under the rain-buffeted flowers. 
SUMMARY 
The abundance of limestone and sandstone products as con- 
stituents of the soil and the abundant water supply affords a 
desirable environment for a wide range of flora. 
The light of the forest is sparse in the height of summer and 
though water is abundant in the deep interior, the flowering plants 
appeared in the greater light period of early spring and summer, 
hence the deep forest in midsummer affords few nectar producing 
plants. 
The open borders of the forest slopes and margins of open 
springs are the only habitats occupied by flowering plants. These 
plants are principally deep throated Lobelia siphilitica, L. cardin- 
alis, Impatiens hi-dora and I. pallida, bumble bee pollinated plants. 
The evenly watered, amply lighted, broad expanse of flood 
plain and island are the flower gardens of midsummer. The 
flowering plants are largely composites whose many flowered 
heads, closely arranged in flat, corymbose panicles, afford an 
easily accessible surface and copious pollen as well as nectar. The 
conservation of space in the arrangement of the composite flowers 
per unit area allows a valuable economizing of time by an insect. 
The large bumble bee, the small bumble bee and the honey bee 
were the only insects whose activities were observed. The small 
bumble bee seemed to be a more efficient worker than either the 
