14 
PLANTS AND INSECTS 
When the swarming season is over, the remaining workers begin 
a ruthless massacre and kill off the greater part of the worthless 
suitors, lest they consume too much of the stored-up honey. 
—Eskell L. Blore. 
A POUND OF HONEY 
W EEN you eat a spoonful of| honey, you have very little idea how 
much work and travel w;ere necessary to produce it. To make a 
pound of clover honey, bees must take the nectar from sixty-two thou¬ 
sand clover blossoms; and to do this requires 2,750,000 visits to the 
blossoms. 
In other words, in order to collect enough nectar to make one 
pound of honey, a bee must go from hive to flower and back again 2,- 
750,000 times. Then when you think how far these bees sometimes 
fly in search of these clover fields, often one or, two miles distant from 
the hive, you will begin to get a small idea of the number of miles one 
of the industrious little creatures must travel in order that you may 
have a pound of honey. —Selected. 
VERY INTERESTING TROPICAL INSECTS 
ET me tell you of just a few! of our tropical insects that to me seem 
' very curious and exceptionally interesting. 
I have before me a butterfly that is known as the blue morpho, 
and his family easily surpasses any other among butterflies as the 
most gorgeous in the world. This one is iridescent, changing its colors 
with every movement of its wings. First I see a deep blue of richest 
tone, then shading into a lighter hue; it finally looks almost black. 
Then I turn it away from the sun, and I get a very delicate greenish 
tinge that is truly wonderful. The spots on the wings are of a rich 
golden( brown, and yet they too change with the altered light. Truly, 
Mother Nature could not have made a more beautiful butterfly than 
this one. 
There are many different members of the morpho family. I wish 
that I could afford to own them all, but, unfortunately, I can not. How¬ 
ever, let us look at a few more interesting creatures of the tropics. 
Would you prefer to seek after beauty, like that of the emperor 
