TITI 
839 
of summer or spring. This was to be ex¬ 
pected, of course. 
During these experiments a remarkable 
thing was learned—namely, that there can 
be, and actually is, activity inside of a 
cluster of bees during winter. When the 
temperature of a cluster goes down to 57, 
and the outside temperature surrounding 
the hive is dropping, the bees by actual 
muscular exercise can raise the tempera¬ 
ture of the cluster. This activity may con¬ 
sist of a few bees tugging at each other, 
moving their bodies back and forth, or 
actually fanning with their wings. One bee 
may set up an active fanning inside the 
cluster during the dead of winter. Bees 
actually fan to cool themselves in summer 
and to warm themselves in winter, para¬ 
doxical as this may seem. 
It is difficult to comprehend that bees 
can warm themselves up by exercise, like 
their owners; and the idea that their little 
electric fans, so to speak, can raise the 
cluster temperature as well as cool it seems 
at first absurd; but that it is true the au¬ 
thor proved to his entire satisfaction by the 
experiments he conducted during the win¬ 
ter of 1914 and 1915. He used a hive that 
had double glass sides. The bees were com¬ 
pelled to form their winter clusters against 
these sides. It was thus possible to watch 
the internal movements that actually took 
place inside, and what was seen was indeed 
a revelation. 
Various observers have opened up clus¬ 
ters of bees in midwinter, and found the 
bees inside in many cases as active as they 
ever are. Likewise thermometric readings 
have sometimes shown the temperature 
the same as during the summer. In the 
light of the observations taken by the Gov¬ 
ernment, it is very easy to explain this, 
notwithstanding that there are times when 
the temperature of the cluster is below 60 
to 70. One has only to remember that, 
when the inside temperature of the cluster 
goes as low as 57, the bees raise the tem¬ 
perature of the cluster even tho the outside 
temperature is becoming colder and colder. 
The presumption is that, when the cluster 
is large enough, they keep up these “daily 
exercises” in order to keep the cluster 
warm. A prolonged cold spell, especially 
that down to zero, is nearly always disas¬ 
trous to good wintering. This cold weather 
puts the bees in the cluster in a state of 
activity; and activity causes an abnormal 
consumption of stores, with no means of 
voiding their feces, and then dysentery 
follows; hence after a prolonged spell of 
cold weather that has lasted for weeks, we 
commonly find evidence of dysentery. 
At the close of this bulletin the authors 
make the statement that “bees in winter, 
either in cellars or outdoors, should be 
disturbed as little as possible.” 
THISTLE. — See Canada Thistle. 
TITI.— The titi family, or Cyrillaceae, 
contains but 6 species, which are found 
only in America. They are shrubs or small 
trees growing in wet land, or swamps, and 
along rivers. There are 3 species in the 
southern States, which are valuable as hon¬ 
ey plants. The honey is apparently seldom 
obtained pure, or in large quantities. It 
has been frequently described as dark col¬ 
ored, and poor flavored compared with' the 
northern white honey. 
Black titi ( Cliftonia monophylla) is also 
called buckwheat tree and ironwood. A 
smooth evergreen shrub or small tree com¬ 
mon in swamps in Georgia and Florida and 
westward to Louisiana. The white fragrant 
flowers are in long racemes, which are 
drooping when young but finally become 
erect. They expand in March and April. 
In southern Georgia black titi is very 
abundant along streams, where it yields an 
amber-colored honey of fair quantity. 
Small-leaved or red titi ( Cyrilla parvi- 
folia ) is an evergreen shrub, 6 to 10 feet 
tall, growing in swamps and along streams 
from Florida to Louisiana. The leaves are 
oblong, leathery, shining green above but 
paler below. The numerous small white 
flowers are in racemes and appear in Feb¬ 
ruary and March. It yields an amber-col¬ 
ored honey, which is strong-flavored, but 
suitable for baking purposes. 
White titi or ivory bush ( Cyrilla racemi- . 
folia ) is also a swamp shrub, or small tree, 
but it is more widely distributed than the 
preceding species, extending from Virginia 
to Florida and westward to Texas. The 
large much-branched bushes, from 5 to 10 
feet tall, are during the last half of May 
covered with innumerable small white blos¬ 
soms. The flowers are in narrow, dense 
racemes, which are clustered at the ends of 
