Chapter M (1)

MADRONA (Arbutus menziesii). THE ARBUTE TREE.

Jepson describes the madrona tree as evergreen with glossy, leathery leaves, widely branching, 20 to 125 feet high; bark polished, crimson or terra cotta, on old trunks dark brown, and fissured into small scales. Coast ranges of California, oak hills, etc. Grows on high ridges, mountain slopes and in gravelly valleys.

According to Richter it yields both nectar and pollen from the flowers.

MAGNOLIA or BULL BAY TREE (Magnolia grandiflora).

The magnolia is native to moist soils from North Carolina to Florida and west to Texas. It is the largest leaved tree of the evergreens. It is a magnificent tree when uncrowded and is a favorite shade tree in the South. The thick, leathery leaves persist over winter until the new ones have appeared. The flowers are large and showy and the blooming period is from spring till midsummer.

The sweet bay (=Magnolia virginiana=), known also as laurel magnolia, swamp laurel and beaver tree, grows in swamps from Massachusetts to southern Florida and west to Arkansas and Texas. In Texas it is reported as yielding very dark honey of poor flavor.

Magnolia is not often mentioned as important, though an occasional report of surplus in the South is received. One beekeeper reports that in Mississippi the honey is so dark and strong as to be unpalatable.

“We had three days of cool, damp, cloudy weather last year in August.
During that time I visited my magnolia apiary, and on approaching
it I heard the heavy roar of bees. I first thought that wholesale
robbing was in full force, and I soon saw that they were gathering
honey, and on looking at the alighting boards I saw particles of
magnolia blooms. This told the tale. I went a few rods into the
swamp, which was decorated with the large, rich magnolia blooms. I
examined a bloom and there was the nectar visible, and all the bees
had to do was to alight, fill themselves and return. The weather soon
cleared off and the magnolia honey was no more. Those three days of
damp, cool and cloudy weather saved many old style gums from being
turned bottom up, in the spring, in this section.”--J. J. Wilder,
Cordele, Georgia. American Bee Journal, Feb. 15, 1906.

MAGUEY, see Century Plant.

MAHOGANY GUM, see Eucalyptus.

MAINE--The Honey Flora of.

A large number of plants produce both pollen and nectar, but in Maine comparatively few yield a surplus of honey--the most important being white clover, alsike clover, fruit bloom, raspberry, fireweed and goldenrod.

Aster (=Aster=). The asters are of some value in this State, and in late fall bees may be seen frequently on the flowers. =Aster paniculatus= appears to be the most important. In some localities in the Middle States the ground is white with the blossoms of field asters. Pure honey, white or perhaps sometimes light amber. It is gathered so late that often it may not be fully ripened.

Apple (=Pyrus malus=). Yields a small surplus occasionally in this State. Honey of fine quality, light amber with aromatic flavor.

Basswood (=Tilia americana=). So rare in this State as to be of little importance.

Blackberry (=Rubus=). Yields little nectar in the Northern States; but a surplus is reported in Georgia and California.

Boneset (=Eupatorium perfoliatum=). Visited by insects in large numbers, but not common enough to yield a surplus.

Buckwheat (=Fagopyrum esculentum=). Not extensively grown in Maine, but fields of it are cultivated in many localities. A dark, purplish honey.

Button-bush (=Cephalanthus occidentalis=). Common in swamps, but not important.

Canada Thistle (=Cirsium arvense=). Not very important in this State, but more common westward. Honey light and well flavored.

Carrot (=Daucus Carota=). Naturalized from Europe, common in fields.

Clover, white (=Trifolium repens=). A fine white honey of delicious flavor. Alsike clover (=T. hybridum=) is an equally good honey plant, honey similar. Both are abundant in Maine, especially northward. In dry seasons bees are able to gather nectar from red clover, a bumblebee flower.

Cucumber (=Cucumis sativus=). A good honey plant in the neighborhood of pickle factories. Honey with flavor of the fruit, but improves with age.

Currant (=Ribes=). The various species of currants and gooseberries, both wild and cultivated, are of some importance.

Dandelion (=Taraxicum officinale=). More valuable for pollen than nectar in this State. Honey golden yellow, thick, strong-flavored, crystallizing in a few weeks.

Goldenrod (=Solidago=). A most valuable honey plant in New England. In southern Maine it never fails to give a large surplus, the main dependence of the beekeeper for winter stores. Honey golden yellow, fine flavored, candying with a coarse grain in a few months. =Solidago graminifolia= and =S. rugosa= are the most important species in this State.

Heartsease (=Polygonum persicaria=). This plant, so valuable in Illinois and Nebraska, is of no importance in Maine; a bee is rarely seen on the flowers.

Horse-chestnut (=Aesculus Hippocastanum=). Not common, bees gather both nectar and pollen. Bumblebee flowers.

Locust, black (=Robinia pseudo-acacia=). Yields a surplus of white honey further south, but not abundant in Maine. Often cultivated.

Maple (=Acer saccharum=). The rock maple blooms in spring before the leaves appear and the flowers are visited by bees in great numbers. The red maple also yields nectar.

Milkweed (=Asclepias syriaca=). Where the milkweed is abundant it is a great help to the beekeeper. In Michigan it is increasing, and perhaps also in Maine. The honey is excellent, with a fruity flavor.

Mayweed (=Anthemis cotula=). Common by the roadside, a bitter honey, apparently not important in this State.

Mustard (=Brassica=). Very abundant in grain fields, where the flowers often present an unbroken sheet of yellow. Probably never yields a surplus in Maine.

Pear (=Pyrus communis=). Not of much importance, but has been known to yield nectar very freely under suitable conditions.

Plums and cherries (=Prunus=). All the species secrete nectar. The choke-cherry, which is common in thickets, attracts many insects.

Raspberry (=Rubus idaeus=, variety =aculeatissimus=). One of the best honey plants, where the forest has been lumbered. A splendid honey of finest flavor, suggestive of the berry.

Sumac (=Rhus typhina=). This common shrub has the staminate and pistillate flowers on different individual plants; not common enough in Maine to yield a surplus. Honey bright amber, with a bitter flavor at first, which later disappears.

Sweet clover (=Melilotus alba=). Does not grow well on the clay soil of this State; requires a limestone soil.

Willow (=Salix=). Valuable in spring for both pollen and nectar, a great help in building up the colonies and bridging over backward springs. The pussy willow (=Salix discolor=) is most important. It could be planted to advantage in useless wet land.

Willow-herb (=Epilobium angustifolium=). Also called greweed, since it springs up abundantly on land which has been burned over. An excellent honey plant; honey water-white; flowers red purple.--John H. Lovell, Bulletin of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Vol. xvii, No. 4.

MAIZE, see Indian Corn.

MALLOW (Malva).

Several lists of honey plants contain some mention of the mallows. The bees visit the flowers for both nectar and pollen, but the author can find no record to indicate that they are anywhere important.

MANCHINEEL (Hippomane mancinella).

The manchineel is an evergreen tree common to the beaches and marshes of southern Florida and the Keys; also found in the Bahamas and Tropical America. It is very poisonous, and Britton credits it with being the most poisonous of our American trees. He states that the milky juice was used by the Caribs to poison their arrows.

It yields nectar abundantly some seasons and is the source of surplus honey. According to E. G. Baldwin, it blooms with pigeon cherry and with dogwood, and the late O. O. Poppleton was the only man to attempt to harvest a crop from the tree, growing as they do on the Keys, where not easily accessible. He credits Poppleton with a yield of 28,000 pounds from the three together in 1910.--Gleanings, April 1, 1911.

MANGROVE, see Black Mangrove.

MANITOBA--Honey Sources of.

In eastern Manitoba the blueberry yields some surplus. The main sources of nectar for the Province are white clover, alsike, fireweed, snowberry, perennial sow thistle, Canada thistle, wolfberry, mustard, goldenrod, aster and numerous prairie and weed plants. To these are added willows and maples as sources of early nectar.--F. W. L. Sladen.

MANZANITA or BEARBERRY (Arctostaphylos).

Figure 90 shows the blossoms and leaves of the manzanita, which is seldom heard of as a honey plant east of California. The following information is copied from Richter’s “Honey Plants of California”:

“=Arctostaphylos=, manzanita, bearberry. Throughout coast ranges,
Sierra Nevada foothills and San Bernardino Mountains (2,000 to 9,000
feet), November to February.

“The honey is amber and of excellent flavor, much like manzanita
itself (Colusa County); pollen. San Diego County reports a white
honey from the manzanita. One of the most important honey plants to
induce bees to early breeding. In some parts of Monterey, Colusa and
Eldorado Counties, a 20 to 40 pound surplus is obtained, and on very
warm days (Monterey County) nectar can be shaken from the bloom. A
beekeeper from Applegate reports it to be his best honey yielder.”

The =Arctostaphylos uva ursi=, bearberry or bear grape, according to Gray, occurs on the rocks and bare hills from New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Missouri and far north and westward. It is also said to be common in Europe and Asia. It is recorded in the local lists of plants of Connecticut and Ontario, although, probably because nowhere abundant, it is not known as a source of honey. Although Richter’s list does not give the species from which their honey is secured, it is probably =A. manzanita= or =A. tomentosa=, or other species peculiar to the West Coast.

The leaves of the eastern species are much used in medicine. It is said to be an astringent tonic, used in diseases of the liver.

MAPLE (Acer).

Almost all of the early pollen and nectar comes from trees, and most of the trees bloom early. The maples are mostly large trees confined to North America and temperate regions of the old world. Two species are commonly planted for shade and ornament--the sugar maple or hard maple (=Acer saccharinum=) and the red maple or soft maple (=Acer rubrum=). The photographs show the blossoms of the soft maple. (Fig. 91.)

Maple lumber is commonly used in the manufacture of furniture, flooring and finishings. The blossoms come very early, when especially valuable in building up colonies for the main honey flow. If the bees were as numerous as later, the nectar stored from maple blossoms would make a creditable yield. Mr. C. L. Pinney, of Iowa, reports that one year his scale hive showed a gain of from one to two pounds daily from soft maple, when the ground was still covered with snow.

If it were possible to have colonies come through the winter with as many bees as they have at the beginning of winter, beekeeping would be a bonanza. Instead of having one or two flows, there would be first a flow from maple and willow, followed by one from dandelion and fruit bloom, ahead of the big clover flow. However, the beekeeper whose apiary is situated near plenty of such trees as willow, maple, elm and box-elder is fortunate, indeed, for the bees get a splendid stimulation very early, and should be in prime condition for business when clover comes on.

The big-leaf maple of the Pacific Coast (=Acer macrophyllum=), also known as Oregon maple, California maple, water maple or white maple, is reported as of special importance in Oregon and British Columbia, its yield is usually cut short by rains. It is found in the Sierra Nevada and coast ranges of mountains in California, north to southern Alaska. (See also Box-elder).

MARIGOLD (Gaillardia pulchella).

There are several species of =Gaillardia= common to a wide scope of country. This particular species ranges from Louisiana west to New Mexico and Arizona. It is the source of large quantities of yellow honey in Texas, where it is highly regarded as a honey plant. It is reported as yielding surplus occasionally as far south as Brownsville, though not frequently.

Scholl lists it as “a main source of surplus; honey dark amber and of good quality. May and June.” (See also Spanish needle.)

MARJORAM (Origanum vulgare).

The marjoram is an European plant, cultivated in gardens, which has become naturalized along roadsides in the Atlantic Coast States. According to Lovell, it is a favorite of honeybees; not sufficiently common to be of much value.

MARRUBIUM, see Hoarhound.

MARYLAND--Honey Sources of.

Willows, maples, fruit blossoms and dandelion furnish nectar and pollen for spring brood rearing. Tulip-poplar is probably the most important source of surplus where the bees are prepared to gather it. Coming so early, few beekeepers have their colonies ready for this flow. Clover, locust, sumac, holly, laurel, clethra, heartsease, Spanish needle, asters and goldenrod are valuable. Tupelo and black-gum are also to be found in the State. There is a long list of minor sources similar to those listed for New Jersey.

MASSACHUSETTS--Honey Flora of.

White clover, found in nearly all quarters of the State.

Alsike clover. Under favorable conditions it yields not only a good quality of nectar but large quantities of it.

Red clover. The second flowering is somewhat accessible to bees.

Sweet clover. Two species, neither abundant in Massachusetts.

Goldenrod and asters. Rank close to clovers in nectar production.

Fruit bloom. Apple, pear, cherry, plum, peach, etc., source of early stores, upon which the colonies build up for the clover harvest. The body is heavy, the color clear and light and the flow comes with a rush, which insures handsome sections; but best of all is the exquisite aroma of the apple blossom, which places fruit bloom honey in a class by itself.

Linden or basswood. Doubtless the most valuable tree honey plant in Massachusetts.

Buckwheat. Reported from all counties in Massachusetts.

Wild raspberry and blackberry. The nectar flow is of long duration, beginning after fruit bloom has ceased.

Several species of sumac are important honey sources which are greatly underestimated.

Locust. A valuable forage for bees. Reported as sporadic in yield.

Maple. Probably of less importance as a honey plant than the mints, strawberry and milkweed.

Clethra. Known also as black alder and sweet pepper bush. A valuable honey secreting plant, largely confined to a belt paralleling the eastern coast.

Milkweed. Where milkweed occurs in large quantities it is a valuable honey plant. Reported as important from Berkshire County.

Wild cherry, knotweed, dandelion, strawberry, chestnut, mints, gill-over-the-ground and mustard also reported occasionally as valuable.

Willow and skunk cabbage valuable for early pollen as well as some nectar.--Burton N. Gates. Bulletin 129, Mass. Ag. Ex. Sta.

MAT GRASS, see Carpet Grass.

MATRIMONY VINE (Lycium vulgare).

Matrimony vine is a low, spiny shrub, with very long, lithe and almost climbing branches. It came originally from the Mediterranean region and was very generally planted for ornament about American homes a generation ago. It is very persistent, and has run wild about many deserted home sites. The small flowers clustered in the axils of the leaves are very attractive to the bees, and, where sufficiently common, the plant is probably of considerable importance.

MAYWEED (Anthemis Cotula).

The mayweed or dog fennel is an old-world weed extensively naturalized from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and west to Texas. It is common along roadsides, in barn lots and waste places generally. Lovell credits it with yielding a honey that is light yellow in color and very bitter. It is seldom mentioned as a source of nectar.

Richter states that because of its blooming between spring and summer it is of considerable value to many Sacramento Valley beekeepers.

MEDICAGO, see Alfalfa.

MELIA, see China Tree.

MELILOTUS, see Sweet Clover.

MELISSA, see Bee Balm.

MELONS (Cucumis melo).

Melons are valuable sources of honey. In locations where they are grown in large acreage, as in the Rocky Ford district of Colorado, considerable quantities of honey are stored from them. There are numerous varieties of muskmelons, canteloupes, etc., but apparently there is not much difference in the value of the various sorts to the beekeeper.

As with cucumbers and pumpkins, the male and female blossoms are on different parts of the stem. Bees and insects carry the pollen from one to another, if in close proximity, and often cause hybridization.

MENTZELIA.

=Mentzeli speciosa= is a conspicuous plant along roadsides and waste places in Colorado. Its large white blossoms are closed during the heat of the day, but beekeepers report that the bees work upon it freely in early morning and late evening. It is probably not important.

In Oregon the stickleaf (=Mentzelia albicaulis=) grows freely on dry, stony land. It has a spreading habit and its pale orange colored flowers are very attractive to the bees.

MESQUITE (Prosopis glandulosa).

The mesquite, or mezquit, is the most important plant of the arid regions from central Texas to New Mexico and eastern California. At a distance it has much the appearance of an aged peach tree. A northern man riding through the mesquite region on the train, for the first time, remarked that he had never seen such extensive peach orchards in his life. The tree is much branched and spreading in habit and is the source of fuel for the inhabitants of the region. Live stock also are fond of the leaves and pods and the Indians of the Southwest eat the seeds, first grinding them into meal and baking them.

The same or a closely related species is common in Hawaii, where it is known as algaroba. There it is one of the most important sources of honey. (See Hawaii). This species is sometimes called honey-pod or honey-locust, although the true honey-locust is a very different tree.

In the desert regions of California it is an important source of large quantities of honey, as it is in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In southwest Texas mesquite is the principal source. The honey is light amber and of good quality. Beekeepers report that it is lighter in color some years than others, even though nothing is blooming at the same season, so the difference cannot be laid to a mixture of honey from different sources. The quality of mesquite honey is good. It is reported to yield more regularly on sandy land than on heavy soil.

There are two blooming periods, the first in spring, usually in April, and the second in July. If there has been plenty of moisture previously the mesquite blooms profusely, due to the fact that it roots very deeply and can reach any moisture that is available in the soil.

MEXICAN CLOVER (Richardia scabra).

The name clover is a misnomer, for this plant does not belong to the clovers but to an entirely different group. It is a luxuriant annual weed growing to a height of two feet or more. The bees are reported as working upon it quite late in the season.

The plant was introduced from the tropics and has become naturalized in Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.

MICHIGAN--Honey Sources of.

While Michigan is within the clover belt, there are a greater variety of sources of surplus honey than in most nearby States. In spring, willows, maples, fruit bloom and dandelion have the usual importance. Both white and alsike clover yield surplus in Michigan. To these may be added wild raspberry, fireweed or willow herb and milkweeds, all of which are important sources of surplus honey in the northern part of the State. Basswood was formerly important and still produces surplus in some sections, though many of the basswood forests have been cut. Buckwheat is also a source of surplus in some parts of Michigan, though according to E. D. Townsend surplus from buckwheat is only to be expected on “a rather poor quality of sandy soil.” Townsend says, further, that alsike is worth all other sources put together in the southern two-thirds of the lower peninsula, and that aster yields surplus in Sanilac County.--Gleanings, page 1184, 1908.

MIGNONETTE (Reseda odorata). COMMON MIGNONETTE.

The mignonette of our gardens is a native of Egypt which came to America by way of Europe. It is frequently mentioned as a honey plant, especially in older literature. Some extravagant claims have been made for it, but perhaps it has never been given a fair test on a sufficiently large scale to demonstrate fully its value. The following extract from an article which appeared in the American Bee Journal, Page 47, 1878, is of interest in this connection:

“After being started under diligent cultivation it was astonishing
to see the rapid progress which they made. The plants soon covered
the ground, where soil was good, and were out in blossom in a short
time, and from that time forward the bees were working on them by the
thousand from morning till late afternoon. I have seen them thick on
it by 8 o’clock. It yields pollen as well as honey. * * *

“I have found that on account of the spikes of the blossom being so
much longer, the bees must work on the larger varieties. I have some
sorts which stand two feet high, the spikes being from eight to ten
inches long. * * *

“A correspondent from California stated that he thought an acre of
mignonette would be adequate for a hundred colonies. * * *

“When you give them this in addition to what they would otherwise
have, it will certainly secure an immense addition to the honey
produced. There is no plant within the range of our knowledge as
valuable for bee forage as mignonette. It will bloom year after year
if not disturbed by frost and gives a longer period of bloom than any
other plant. It gives more blossoms in a given space and more forage
than any plant we have ever seen. Honey from this plant has the most
delicious fragrance of any we have ever tasted.”--William Thompson.

It was later tested at the Michigan Agricultural College, but Professor Cook failed to bear out the above claims. He reported as follows:

“I expected great things of this plant, as the bee papers were very
high in their praise of its qualities. June 23 it began to blossom,
and it was not till the 27th that the bees began their work upon it.
They did not seem to take to it very readily, for on every occasion
that I made observations, I found very few bees present. With us it
proved a failure. Others have corroborated this statement. * * * It
is rather a delicate plant for this climate.”--Page 83, A. B. J.,
1878.

It is listed by Richter in Bulletin 217, “Honey Plants of California,” with the statement that it is “very much visited by bees whenever in bloom.”

MILK VETCH (Astragalus).

The milk vetch is a close relative of the loco (see Loco), and like the loco is visited by the bees. Some species are of some value for honey, especially in the plains region west of the Missouri River.

MILKWEED (Asclepias).

The milkweeds are a large family of plants common to the temperate and tropical regions of many parts of the world. North America alone has 55 recognized species. These plants are also known as butterfly weeds and milkweeds. The blossoms are borne in large ball-shaped clusters as shown in Figure 92. The seeds are attached to silken parachutes, on which they are carried by the wind. It is these silky attachments that give rise to the name “silkweed.” Remarkable yields of honey are sometimes secured from milkweeds. An average yield of 100 pounds per colony from this source is occasionally reported through the bee magazines.

Much has been written about the entangling of bees in the pollen masses of milkweed. It frequently happens that bees thus entangled are unable to free themselves and die as a result. Some species of milkweed is included in nearly every list of honey plants which the author has consulted. Apparently it may be regarded as of some value almost everywhere. The honey is said to be light in color and of good quality.

It is of special importance in northern Michigan, where it grows in great abundance, as shown by Figure 93. In some locations beekeepers report an average per colony production of 50 pounds, year after year, from milkweed.

MILKWEED VINE, see Bluevine.

MINNESOTA--Honey Sources of.

In early spring the willows and maples, followed by dandelions are important for spring brood rearing. Fruit bloom is also valuable in spring. White clover and alsike are the most important sources of surplus. Probably there is no place in the world where these clovers yield nectar more abundantly than in Minnesota. Sweet clover is also important in some sections of the State. Willow herb or fireweed, basswood, goldenrod and asters may be mentioned.

MINT (Mentha).

Richter lists the spearmint, or peppermint, (=Mentha spicata=), as yielding a great abundance of amber colored honey in Sacramento County, California and southward. Spearmint was introduced from Europe and has escaped from cultivation and become naturalized in many places, both east and west.

He also lists the tule mint (=Mentha canadensis=) as yielding honey from July to October. The mints belong to an important group of honey plants and where sufficiently common are valuable. They should not be confused with hedge nettle, which is locally called mint in many places. (See Hedge Nettle).

MISSISSIPPI--Honey Sources of.

Along the eastern border of the State there is a large area where sweet clover is widely disseminated. In this section large yields of surplus honey from this source are reported. An average yield of 140 pounds per colony of surplus from 700 colonies in one yard near Prairie Point has been reported to the author by a prominent Mississippi apiarist.

Willow, maple, fruit bloom and elm are reported as important for early pollen and nectar. White clover yields some honey in the northern part of the State. Persimmon is given as an important source of dark honey. Bitterweed yields freely, but the quality is so poor as to be of little value. Tupelo and cotton are valuable in some sections of the State. There is some fall honey from asters and goldenrod.

The coast region offers a vast area of gallberry and there is much titi along the streams. There are some very good unoccupied locations in Mississippi which offer great possibilities for honey production.

MISSOURI CURRANT, see Buffalo Currant.

MISSOURI--Honey Sources of.

White clover is the one principal source of honey in Missouri. Sweet clover yields surplus in some localities. In the low lands along the Mississippi River, heartsease, Spanish needle and boneset are also important. In many places south of the Missouri River, bitterweed yields some nectar, which is often mixed with the better honey and spoils the quality. Bluevine (=Gonolobus laevis=) yields surplus in a few localities. In the vicinity of Brunswick as much as 100 pounds of surplus per colony has been reported.

Only a small portion of Missouri is well suited to commercial beekeeping, owing to uncertainty of the honey flows. With the extension of the growth of sweet clover as a farm crop conditions are improving.

MISTLETOE (Phoradendron flavescens).

The mistletoe is too well known to need description. It occurs as a parasite on trees from southern New Jersey and Missouri south to Florida and Texas. It is a yellowish-green shrub, much branched, which grows on the branches of the trees to which it attaches itself. It flowers early, usually in February and March, and is frequently mentioned as a honey plant in the Southern States. Scholl lists it as the first source of nectar and pollen in Texas, blooming there in January and February. Many Texas beekeepers regard it as valuable for spring stimulation.

MONARDA, see Horsemint.

MONTANA--Honey Sources of.

The principal sources of nectar in Montana are alfalfa and white sweet clover in Yellowstone, Sun River, Missouri, Gallatin and Flat-Head Valleys; yellow sweet clover in Bitterroot Valley, White clover in Bitterroot and Gallatin Valleys, and fireweed in northwestern timbered region. Minor plants are willow, dandelion, Grindelia (gum-weed), etc.--H. A. Scullen.

MONUMENT PLANT (Frasera).

The monument plant is variously known as columbo, deer’s ears (a translation of the Navaho name), and Frasera. It grows in high altitudes from 7,000 to 10,000 feet, from South Dakota westward to Montana and Oregon and south to New Mexico and California.

It has large, creamy blossoms, about two inches in diameter, on tall flower stalks growing to a height of three feet. (Fig. 94.) It is common in the Rocky Mountains and is much sought by the bees. According to Wesley Foster it is an important source of honey in May. It is a striking plant which once seen is not likely to be forgotten.

MORNING-GLORY (Convolvulus).

The morning-glory is a twining perennial vine of wide distribution throughout the United States. It has a large bell-shaped corolla and is often grown for ornament. Originally it was introduced from Europe as an ornamental and has escaped and become naturalized in waste places, old fields and along fences everywhere. It is probably not important to the beekeeper anywhere, but Richter lists it as a honey plant at Sacramento, California, and Scholl lists it as yielding some honey and pollen in Texas.

At Victoria, Texas, according to M. B. Talley, morning glory yields surplus honey of fine quality in September. There it is called tievine.

MOTHERWORT (Leonurus Cardiaca).

The common motherwort is a weed introduced from Europe and Northern Asia. It is now quite generally naturalized from Canada to Florida and west to Louisiana. For some reason, it is seldom included in lists of honey plants, although it is said to be an excellent source of nectar. Reports of bees working on this plant very freely, in 1914, when most other plants failed to yield anything, were frequent.

The motherwort grows in clumps in waste places in old barn lots, along railroads, in factory grounds, etc. It grows from two to six feet high, with small flower clusters in the axils of the leaves. It is a relative of the catnip, and apparently equally attractive to the bees. This plant was formerly used to some extent in medicine, especially for diseases of women. It is also known as lion’s tail.

Figure 96 shows the blossoms and leaves, and Figure 95 a clump of the plants.

MOUNTAIN LAUREL, see Laurel.

MOUNTAIN LILAC (Ceanothus).

There are several species of mountain lilac common to California and the Western States. They are closely related to the buckthorns. (See Buckthorn). New Jersey tea belongs to this group. (See New Jersey tea).

Jepson lists fourteen species of =Ceanothus= common to California. They are shrubs or small trees with small but showy flowers, borne in umbels or panicles. The California species are mostly evergreen.

They are known by various names, as deer-brush, California lilac, mountain lilac, etc. One species is called buckbrush.

Some species are common to the Mountain States from Wyoming and Colorado to Arizona and west to Texas. Both honey and pollen are secured from this source, though there are probably not many places where surplus yields may be expected.

MOUNTAIN MINT, see Basil.

MOUNTAIN QUEEN, see Yucca.

MUSTARD (Brassica campestris).

Figure 97 shows the common yellow mustard (=Brassica campestris=), which is common all over North America and in Europe. The black mustard (=B. nigra=) also has a very wide distribution in Europe and America. There are about 50 species, including the closely related cultivated varieties of cabbage, turnips, rutabagas and mustard. All produce some nectar, and in some localities they are an important source of honey. In parts of California, notably the Lompoc Valley, mustard is grown commercially for seed; much honey is stored from this source. The honey is said to be light in color and mild in flavor. Apparently there is much variation in the amount of nectar, according to climatic conditions. In any locality where it is sufficiently abundant, mustard can be expected to add something to the product of the apiary.

The late J. S. Harbison wrote, in his “Beekeepers’ Directory,”:

“Mustard affords a larger amount of valuable pasturage to the acre
than almost any other plant. It blooms throughout the month of May,
and part of June. During this time, bees increase in numbers, and
store from it large quantities of honey of a clear yellowish color,
but partaking slightly of the taste of the plant.”

N

NAPA THISTLE, see Star Thistle; also Centaurea.

NEBRASKA, Honey Sources of.

Most of Nebraska’s surplus honey is secured from clover, though alfalfa is important in the western part of the State, especially under irrigation. White clover, alsike and sweet clover are all important honey plants in Nebraska. Cottonwood furnishes an important source of pollen in spring. Willows and maples furnish both nectar and pollen, while fruit bloom and dandelions are usually sufficient to enable the bees to build up for the clover flow. There is a great variety of minor sources which are not sufficiently abundant to yield much surplus. Among these may be mentioned, milkweeds, catalpa, Rocky Mountain bee plant, buffalo bur, vervain, Spanish needles, etc.

Heartsease yields abundant surplus some years and basswood was formerly important in some places in eastern Nebraska.

NECTAR AND NECTAR SECRETION.

The great Swedish botanist, Linnaeus, nearly two hundred years ago, basing his classification of plants on their flowers, found it necessary to name and account for all of the parts of a flower. In many cases he found structures that were neither sepals, petals, stamens nor pistils, and as these contained, or were wet with, a sweet fluid, he gave this the fanciful name “nectar”--the drink of the gods, and called the parts of the flower that produced or contained it, “nectaries.”

As these nectaries were different from stamens and pistils, which Linnaeus recognized as the sexual organs of flowers, though they are sometimes connected with them, and as they were different from ordinary sepals and petals, though sometimes connected with them, they presented something of a question to the men of that day, who were curious to know what the parts of a plant really are and what they do. For this reason the study of nectaries became something of a popular diversion for a generation or two; and a general idea that they are organs for secreting sugar became established; not necessarily an idea of secretion, though, for just as animals excrete various organic substances that are by-products, or waste, from some of their functions, so it was thought by some students that the sugar or nectar might really be an excreted waste or surplus rather than a substance secreted because it is to become useful to the plant.

Das
entdeckte Geheimniſs
der
NATUR
im Bau und in der Befruchtung
der
Blumen
von
Christian Konrad Sprengel,
Mit 25 Kupfertafeln.
Berlin, 1793.
bei Friedrich Vieweg dem æltern.]

Toward the end of the eighteenth century a German rector, Sprengel, who seems to have found in nature a good deal of inspiration that he failed to “put over,” noticed that the petals of the common German wild geranium were fringed with hairs at their bases. That was in the day before men believed in evolution, but when they did believe in a purposeful creation. Sprengel was convinced that an all-wise Creator would not have made a single hair in vain, and he set about discovering what these hairs were for, much as a sensible person, seeing the governor on an engine today would try to find out what it is for. Below the break between the petals, he found a nectar gland, producing its sugary fluid; and he saw the hairs would prevent the nectar from being diluted or washed away by rain or dew. This brought him back to the original question--what nectaries and nectar are for. He got his answer to this by watching the plant and seeing that bees visited the flowers and removed the nectar as what might be called the raw materials of the honey industry.

In Sprengel’s day the general impression was not only that things have been created just as we find them, but created for our own ultimate good. So Sprengel found an answer in discovering that the hair fringe of the geranium petals protects the nectar of the flowers and so preserves it for bees to use in manufacturing honey for our breakfast table.

When you stop to think about it, Sprengel could hardly have had the curiosity to study out his geranium question to an answer without being spurred to look at other flowers to see if they might not have something interesting of the same sort to offer. He yielded to the impulse to look at other flowers, and he found his geranium to be a very drab specimen compared with some of the irregular and painted flowers that he studied out in the same way. He must have felt no common pride when, in 1793, he published the results of his studies, with simple but effective illustrations, under a title that meant revealing to mankind the newly discovered secret of nature in the structure and fertilization of flowers.

But Sprengel seems not to have been the sort of man to whom such an answer really was an answer, and he looked further. It does not seem to have taken him long to see that while gathering their own store of honey, and obviously without consciousness that they were doing anything else, the bees became dusted with pollen from geranium stamens and rubbed it off on geranium stigmas while going their rounds of the flowers. This conclusion evidently answered two questions--what the hairs are for, and what nectar is for.

It is not necessary to walk down Michigan Boulevard on a windy day to realize that we belong to an imitative race. The corner grocery and the drug store show it as well as the windows of milliners and dressmakers, shoe shops and news stands, or as the sights that issue from a barber shop in a college town.

Fashions run in fads and interests quite as much as in dress. Linnaeus was a great botanist; perhaps none has been greater. He not only reduced a chaotic science to order, but interested men in its study to a remarkable extent. It is rather unfairly charged against him that because his service was somewhat one-sided, those whose interest he awakened were extremely one-sided, in that they did not see or care for much in botany beyond finding, describing and classifying new plants. This was well enough worth doing; it is not finished yet, and will not be finished for many years to come; but it had become so fascinating and workable through the genius of the Swedish master that his followers seized on it with eagerness, and it was a long time before a mind of original habits and impulses broke loose from the train.

The man who possessed this originality was Darwin, the promulgator of the now universally accepted idea of organic evolution. To him has been ascribed the introduction of a new teleology into natural science, recognizing that structures and functions are because they are or have been of use--not of use to man necessarily, though man may turn them to account--but to their possessor.

This was Sprengel’s conclusion as to the nectar of geranium flowers, which he found led to their fertilization. The essential difference between his way of seeing it and Darwin’s is that he thought the entire mechanism has been specially made by the Creator as a means to an end, while Darwin saw in it the gradual modification of earlier structures because the new were helpful in the struggle of life and their possessors for this reason were likely to survive and pass them on to their offspring.

There is a German country saying that the honeybee was forbidden the red clover because she didn’t keep Sunday. Beekeepers know that her tongue is a little too short for the honey tube of the red clover flower and that she doesn’t waste time in trying to get what is out of her reach. They know, too, that some races of honeybees really can suck the red clover nectar because they have longer tongues, and if beekeepers ever want to do it they can probably set an expert plant breeder to work at breeding a race of red clover with a tube short enough so that even the German honeybee can get at its nectar. Natural evolution hasn’t done this. Where red clover is at home bumblebees are found, and bumblebees have no difficulty in reaching its nectar much as hawk-moths get that of a moon flower, which is far beyond the reach of any kind of bee. But in the South Seas, where there are no long-tongued bees, red clover finds itself as unable to set seed as the German honeybee is to get at its nectar. Bee and flower have evolved together, where both are at home, into a harmony of structure that is helpful to them both.

Nothing was more suggestive to Darwin in his search for evidences of evolution, or modification through descent, than this sort of harmony of structure and habit in flowers and insects; and one of his earliest and most effective books in bringing his views to the comprehending notice of others was one dealing with the mutual relations between those freaks in flowers, the orchids, and their insect visitors.

For Sprengel’s teleology, Sprengel’s explanation of nectar as a means of securing fertilization was sufficient. For Darwin’s teleology, it carried another question: =Why?= The geranium flower has both stamens and pistil, standing in its middle. The one might fertilize the other just as well as not, apparently; and yet this does not happen, for the pollen-bearing anthers of the stamens drop off before the stigmas of the pistils come to maturity. The same thing may be seen on any single-flowered geranium in a bay window or a greenhouse or a summer window box or flower bed, only this geranium does not belong to the genus =Geranium= of the botanists, but to the related African genus =Pelargonium=.

Looking for a further reason, Darwin saw a step further into the mystery when he found that these and many other flowers that ought to get on without any help are as dependent upon insects through their own failure to bring pollen and stigma together as those are in which stamens and pistils are borne in separate flowers--often on separate plants. To him, nectar and its attendants--flower fragrance, color, variegation, bizarre shape, long tubes, nectar guards of hairs or some other structure--meant what they had meant to Sprengel, fertilization through insect aid; but they meant something more, fertilization of one flower by pollen from another flower--crossing.

And still the questions multiply. Why do not all flowers have stamens and pistil side by side? Why, when they have this structure, do they not time the maturity of these essential parts so as to secure effective functioning without all the nectar machinery? In other words, =why= is crossing so commonly necessitated and provided for?

Science of every kind has been advanced by three methods--reasoning, observation, experimentation. Sprengel’s answer was reached by the first two; the new answer sought by Darwin was to be obtained through the third. For eleven years he put the question direct to the plants themselves, fertilizing them by their own pollen, crossing them, raising and requestioning their offspring. More and stronger progeny from crossing was the answer.

The popularity that Linnaeus had given to characterizing and classifying living things, was transferred by Darwin to studying their structure and doings. Sprengel’s idea fell upon barren soil; Darwin’s was cultivated with care and skill.

Two men--Mueller, a German, and Delpino, an Italian, stand out most prominently among a multitude who observed and wrote and pictured the marvels of flower and insect harmonies for a generation. All did excellent work in furnishing details and corroborations; but Darwin had answered the question as to the what and the why of the nectar of flowers.

But there is nectar that is not produced in flowers. Look at the queer spots in the angles between the veins on the under side of a catalpa leaf, when it is young; or at the little goblets on the stalk of a cherry or peach or snowball leaf, or at the pin-head spots on a trumpet-creeper or paeony calyx, and you may see glands there that secrete a sweet fluid. Bees may not care for it, but wasps or ants do. The cotton plant has such sweet nectar glands on the outside of the cluster of bracts about each blossom, and on the back of its leaves.

In a very few cases such “extrafloral” nectar serves the same purpose as that within the flowers; but generally it does not lead to fertilization. Delpino called the nectar that leads to fertilization “nuptial” nectar, and the other “extranuptial.”

In the seventies of the last century an English mining engineer, Belt, well known in the ore regions of Colorado, was marooned by his profession on a mining property in Nicaragua. Using his eyes took the place with him of tennis, or of dissipation, which is the white man’s bane in the tropics. He saw that a certain kind of ants cut the leaves of trees into bits which they take into their nests, and that roses and other introduced plants fared hard with these leaf cutters, unless they were protected by aromatic oils, as various kinds of citrus leaves are, or in some other way.

Belt did not fail to notice that ants visited extrafloral nectaries in numbers. In the case of those on some acacias he found the ants very pugnacious. I confess that in Guatemala I have preferred, myself, to go around a bush or a grove of such acacias with their ant guards. As with Sprengel’s geranium hairs, these nectaries unfolded question after question.

In Belt’s case, the tips of the acacia leaflets ripen also into little fruit-like bodies that the ants gather and take into their nests; and they make these nests in the stipules that flank each leaf and sometimes are shaped like a pair of small buffalo horns. It is an interesting undertaking to get the ant census of an acacia twig of this sort. The danger may not be as great, but it is as real and perhaps as painful as in taking the census of a mountain valley noted for moonshine traffic.

Belt drew the conclusion that extranuptial nectar, sometimes supplemented by solid food and shelter, is of use to the plant that provides it by maintaining a bodyguard of ants on plants that otherwise would be defoliated and injured by leaf cutters or grazing animals, much as Sprengel and Darwin found an explanation of nuptial nectar in the benefit of insect pollinization of the flowers.

This is the simple story of nectar, simply told, as it has been seen by observing and thinking men. But it is not a story free from complications. Our blue violets rarely set fruit from their showy nectar-bearing flowers, but their main reliance for seed is on flowers produced below the leaves, and these do not open, but are self-fertilized. The beautiful =Poinsettia=, with its brilliant red bracts and large cups overflowing with thick nectar, does not fruit in West Indian gardens any more than it does in our greenhouses at Christmas time. And irresistibly pugnacious as the acacia ants are, those that visit our paeonies and cassias and other plants do not usually more than protest mildly if we molest the plants that they are on.

Are the explanations of Sprengel and Darwin, and of Belt wrong? No other that are at all satisfactory have been offered.

When one stops to think of it, the secretion of nectar is an unusual phenomenon. Sugar is made within plants and it does not leak from them unless they have been injured. The sugar beet takes various substances out of the soil water, but it does not permit the passage of sugar into the soil water. And yet nectar, essentially sugar, is passed out of the plant, within which it was manufactured. This is because it is secreted--or excreted--through specialized glands. Everyone who grows plants in a bay window has seen young clover or grass leaves with a drop of water on their tips at some time or other. A few grains of bird seed in a flower pot covered by a pane of glass will show this as quickly as the seedlings come up.

These drops pass out finally through pores; but they are drops of water and not of nectar. If we can imagine a gland behind such a water pore, secreting sugar--letting it really get out of the cells with or into the water, we can picture a nectar gland. Such glands occur in some flowers. Some botanists believe that extranuptial nectar glands were originally water glands that have acquired the habit of secreting sugar.

This habit is a very unusual and a very peculiar one. It is not really understood except as it may be connected with usefulness to the plant. If this usefulness is not indirect, in the ways suggested by Darwin and Belt or otherwise, it must be direct. Water glands relieve over-pressure when absorption is high and evaporation low; in some of the calla family the water even spurts from the tips of the leaves at times. But sugar is not like water, taken in in quantity and to spare; it is manufactured, and in the case of nectar glands it is manufactured where it is secreted. Nobody has yet suggested any physiological function of plants calling for sugar safety valves situated in the queer positions occupied by extranuptial nectar glands, and no satisfactory direct physiological explanation of the nuptial glands has been suggested.

The actual status of nectar in botanical science is about this: When it is produced in flowers, and in some cases when it is outside of them, but near them, it demonstrably serves to secure cross-pollinization through the aid of insects, or humming birds and their like, when the flowers are long, tubular and red, as in the trumpet creeper, the trumpet honeysuckle and the scarlet salvia. It is then “nuptial nectar.” When it does not serve the plant in this way and so is “extranuptial,” it occurs in the neighborhood of the flowers, as in cotton, sweet potato, trumpet creeper and paeony, where it attracts numbers of ants, which are often very pugnacious, and to the extent of their activities it prevents injury to the flower buds and flowers, especially in their early stages; or it occurs on developing leaves during the period of their greatest need. More rarely, as in the acacias, the leaves continue to secrete it through the season, so that those that are mature add to the protection of the younger leaves and the flowers and the young fruit.

That neither of these functions is served in exceptional cases, and that some flowers rely on the wind for effective pollination, or have lapsed into self-fertilization; or that really pugnacious ants do not commonly frequent the extranuptial glands of most plants in temperate regions, and that some plants get along very well without such help, mark questions that will continue to stimulate observation and experiment. But nothing now known of the physiology of plants offers an alternative explanation for that which connects nectar with either pollination or defense; and until such an explanation can be found nectar will continue to be regarded as connected indirectly with these services through insect or bird relations.--William Trelease, Botanist, University of Illinois. American Bee Journal, Dec., 1919. (See also Physiology of Nectar Secretion).

NEGUNDO, see Box Elder.

NEVADA--Honey Sources of.

Much of Nevada is mountain and desert country. Alfalfa is the principal source of surplus honey, though sweet clover also yields. There are numerous minor sources, as willows along the streams and many of the desert plants.

NEW BRUNSWICK--Honey Sources of.

In New Brunswick the principal sources of nectar are alsike and white clover, fireweed, goldenrod and aster. Willows and maples stimulate early brood rearing.--F. W. L. Sladen.

NEW HAMPSHIRE--Honey Sources of.

The honey flora of New Hampshire is very similar to that of other New England States. In spring, willows, maples, fruit blossoms and dandelions keep the bees busy in preparation for the main flow, which comes from the clovers. Goldenrod is also important. Sumac, laurel, blueberries and asters are worthy of mention, also.

NEW JERSEY--Honey Sources of.

Plants from which nectar is gathered in less than surplus quantities:

Maples, mid-March-early April.
Peach early April.
Pear, mid-April.
Apple, late April early May.
Willows, late April.
Dandelion, early May.
Wild strawberry, May.
Lupine, May.
Raspberry, May.
Grape, late May-early June.
Huckleberry, blueberry, late May-late June.
Persimmon, mid-June-late June.
Vervain, late June-early September.
Virginia creeper, late June-late July.
Milkweed, silkweed, July.
False indigo, July.
Button bush, July.
Burdock, July-October.
Tree of Heaven, pride of China, July.
Catnip, July.
Motherwort, August.
Smartweed, heartsease, late August-mid-September.
Horsemint, August-September.
Boneset, mid-August-September.

Surplus honey plants:

Crimson clover, mid-May.
Locust, May 20-June 1.
Tulip-poplar, May 26-June 10.
Poison ivy, mid-May-mid-June.
Holly, late May-late June.
Mountain laurel, late May-late June.
Sheep laurel, late May-late June.
Swedish clover, alsike clover, June 1-July 10.
White clover, early June-mid-July.
Dogbane, Indian hemp, early June-late August.
Basswood, linden, late June-early July.
California privet, mid-July-late July.
Sumac, mid-June-mid-July.
White sweet clover, June-November.
Cranberry, June 15-August 15.
August flower, soap bush, sweet pepper bush, late July-late August.
Rose mallow, swamp mallow, late July-early September.
Burdock, July-November.
Spanish needle, mid-August into October.
Heartsease, smartweed or blackheart, August-September.
Heath aster, white aster or St. Michaelmas daisy, late
August-mid-October.
Bushy goldenrod, late August-mid-October.
Buckwheat, early August.

Surplus Honey Regions