Chapter M (2)

We may divide the State of New Jersey into three sections on the basis of surplus honey production.

The first section includes all of the southern and middle counties and the southern part of Middlesex, Somerset and Hunterdon. As a rule, the surplus honey in this district comes from clover. There are, of course, occasional places, such as low-lying land along large streams where a second flow is harvested in late summer and early autumn.

The second district includes all north of the first, with the exception of Hudson County and a part of Bergen, Passaic, Essex and Union. In this district there are generally two distinct, heavy honey flows, the first from clover and the last from buckwheat and fall flowers, such as goldenrod, aster, etc.

The third division, which roughly includes the Passaic and Hackensack Valleys, and the Raritan Valley below New Brunswick, rarely produces any surplus honey except in the fall, and that comes from goldenrod, aster and mallows.

The presence or absence of a single kind of plant will often decide whether the fall flow will be worth consideration. This principle applies more particularly to the second district. Should the amount of buckwheat sown be very small in some parts of this region the fall surplus would be missing. In certain parts of this second district white sweet clover is found in great abundance and furnishes surplus throughout the late summer and early fall.--Elmer G. Carr, Manual of Bee Husbandry.

NEW JERSEY TEA or RED-ROOT (Ceanothus americanus).

New Jersey tea grows from one to three feet high from a dark red root, hence the name “red-root.” It is a shrubby plant with flowers in white clusters. The leaves were used for tea during the revolutionary war. It is common in woodlands from Ontario to Manitoba and south to Arkansas, Texas and Florida.

It is not often mentioned as a source of honey, but according to H. B. Parks, is regarded as valuable in northwestern Missouri. (See Mountain lilac.)

NEW MEXICO--Honey Sources of.

Alfalfa is the chief source of surplus honey in the irrigated regions of New Mexico. There are some districts where the bloom of orchard fruits is important, especially for spring stimulation. The desert flora offers a wide variety of minor sources, with a few of surplus importance. Among the latter may be mentioned mesquite, catsclaw and cactus. (See Arizona and Texas.) Sweet clover is also important.

NEW YORK--Honey Sources of.

W. D. Wright, in Bulletin 49 of the New York Department of Agriculture, only lists a few plants as important in that State. He mentions basswood as formerly one of the principal sources now rapidly passing away. Alfalfa is mentioned as a source of honey in central New York. Alsike is spoken of as abundant and a splendid honey producer. Good yields are frequently gathered from buckwheat in sections where it is grown extensively and it seldom fails entirely. Fruit blossoms and black locust bloom before the colonies are sufficiently strong to store much surplus, but are valuable for early brood rearing. Sweet clover, sumac, blue thistle and goldenrod are the other sources mentioned. The failure to mention white clover is evidently an oversight, since it is one of the most important sources of nectar in the State.

NORTH CAROLINA, Honey Flora of.

Taking the State as a whole, sourwood, poplar, sometimes called tulip tree, and the clovers, are the three leaders. Of these three leaders the poplar is the most widely distributed and is prominently mentioned in all sections, from east to west. The sourwood is principally confined to the Piedmont section, though reported also from the lower mountain localities and from the western border of the eastern region. The clovers are found in all parts, though more abundant in the mountain and Piedmont sections. Next to these we find the gallberry (=Vaccinium sp.=) and black gum, both taking high rank and both found principally in the east. Persimmon ranks sixth and is reported principally from the east, several mentioning it as irregular in yield and lasting but a short time, but doing well for a short period. The basswood or linden comes seventh and is reported only from the west. Holly and huckleberry (low and high) are next in order, both being in the east. Buckwheat follows and is confined to the west.

Twenty-four leading bee pasturage plants:

Sourwood, Piedmont; little east and west.
Poplar (tulip tree), all sections.
Clovers (all varieties), west and Piedmont; little in east.
Gallberry, east.
Black gum, east.
Persimmon, east and Piedmont.
Basswood (linden, linn), west.
Holly, east.
Huckleberry, east.
Buckwheat, west.
Ironweed (aster), Piedmont.
Locust (black locust), west and Piedmont.
Aster, all sections.
Cotton, east and Piedmont.
Stickweed (=Bidens=).
Fruit trees, all kinds, all sections.
Peas (cow peas), Piedmont and east.
Sumac.
Nut trees (including oak), all sections.
Goldenrod, all sections.
Rattan, east.
Blackberry, all sections.
Maple, all varieties, all sections.
Alfalfa, locally grown.

--Franklin Sherman, Jr., Bul. North Carolina Department of
Agriculture, Vol. 29, No. 1.

NORTH DAKOTA--Honey Sources of.

Beekeeping is, as yet, but little developed in North Dakota. Willows and cottonwoods furnish early pollen, dandelion and fruit bloom assist the bees with both nectar and pollen for early brood rearing. The clovers are the principal sources of surplus honey.

NOVA SCOTIA--Honey Sources of.

Willows and maples are important for spring brood rearing. The sources of surplus are alsike and white clover, goldenrod, aster, apple, fall dandelion (=T. autumnale=), wild radish (=R. Raphanistrum=), blueberry and =Kalmia angustifolia=.--F. W. L. Sladen.

O

OAK (Quercus).

The oaks are frequently reported as sources of nectar. The fact is that it is usually honeydew, rather than nectar, which the bees gather from oaks. Pollen is produced in abundance by these trees and all species may be regarded as valuable for pollen. (Fig. 100.) There are many species of oaks, some of which are common to any part of America where trees grow naturally. There are 24 species recorded from Alabama, 24 from New Mexico and 12 from Connecticut.

Richter gives 4 species--field oak (=Quercus agrifolia=), tan bark (=Q. densiflora=), mountain white oak (=Q. douglassii=) and weeping oak (=Q. lobata=), as sources of honey in California. Scholl gives 6 species as sources of honey in Texas, as follows: Post oak (=Q. minor=), live oak (=Q. virginiana=), red oak (=Q. rubra=), Spanish oak (=Q. palustris=), water oak (=Q. aquatica=), and jack or barren oak (=Q. nigra=).

H. B. Parks, of the Texas Agricultural College, has found that post oak yields some nectar from extra floral nectaries. This may be true of some other species.

The live oak yields honeydew in large quantity in west Texas, from the balls made by the live oak gall. George Schmidt, of Crystal City, reports an average of 25 pounds per colony from live oak balls, on the Nueces River, in 1917. The honey was dark and heavy, but of good flavor. The flow lasted till frost. There are numerous similar reports, from west Texas, of honeydew from this source, from August till late fall. During the drought of 1917 and 1918 there was little else for the bees in many Texas localities, and the live oak saved the bees from starvation.

Occasionally the bees work on white oaks in Illinois. In this case they are attracted by the presence of a soft scale (=Lycanium cockerellii=).

OGECHE PLUM, see Tupelo.

OHIO--Honey Sources of.

The sources of nectar in Ohio are very similar to those of many other States in the great central basin, where white and alsike clover furnish the principal surplus. There is the usual list of plants furnishing nectar and pollen for early spring, such as willows, maples, fruit blossoms, dandelions, etc. The main flow comes from white and alsike clover in June and July. In some sections buckwheat yields surplus. Basswood, which was once an important source of nectar, has been cut until few beekeepers are able to get crops of much value from it. Goldenrod and asters are important in many sections for late fall.

OKLAHOMA--Honey Sources of.

Fruit blossoms furnish nectar and pollen for early brood rearing. Dandelions and willows are also important at this season. Cottonwood yields pollen abundantly, as do other shade trees. Alfalfa horsemint, horehound, sweet clover and cotton are important sources of surplus.

Among the many minor sources may be mentioned Indian currant, button bush, asters, goldenrod, milkweeds, melons, etc.

OKRA or GUMBO.

Cook’s Manual lists okra as a honey plant. It is a well-known garden vegetable, especially popular in the South, but is seldom grown in quantity sufficient to be important to the beekeeper.

OLEASTER, WILD OLIVE, RUSSIAN OLIVE (Elaeagnus hortensis).

The Russian oleaster, known botanically as =Var songorica= (Fig. 101) was first introduced into this country by Professor J. L. Budd because of its hardiness and ornamental qualities. The young trees branch freely and produce an abundance of white, scurfy foliage, which makes it a most attractive and striking shrub. * * * It is one of the most fragrant of cultivated small trees. The season of blossoming varies somewhat, but with us (Iowa) is about the middle or early part of June.

It is one of the best of our spring honey plants. The bees visit the plant in large numbers when in full bloom from early morning until late evening.--L. H. Pammel, American Bee Journal, November, 1917.

=Eleaegnus argentea=, wolf willow or silverberry. It is said to yield honey on the prairies.--W. J. Sheppard, British Columbia. American Bee Journal, November, 1917.

OLIVE (Olea europaea).

The olive is generally cultivated in orchards throughout California. Richter states that his bees, within easy reach of several thousand olive trees, do not work on them, but that T. O. Andrews, of Corona, and B. B. Hogaboom, of Elk Grove, report bees working well on olive bloom. He further states that the olive tree is a well known source of honey in Spain.

ONION (Allium).

According to Richter, wild onions sometimes yield surplus honey in the vicinity of Sacramento, California. In some parts of that State, where cultivated onions (=Allium cepa=) are grown for seed, they are also important. The onion yields freely and the honey is said to be amber in color with a characteristic onion flavor which disappears after the honey is fully ripened. There are few localities where onions are sufficiently abundant to be important.

ONTARIO--Honey Sources of.

The principal honey plants of Ontario, in the order of their importance, are alsike and white Dutch clover, buckwheat, basswood, fireweed, wild raspberry, goldenrod, aster, dandelion, sweet clover, viper’s bugloss, Canada thistle, milkweed and boneset.

Buckwheat, basswood, sweet clover, viper’s bugloss, milkweed and boneset are confined principally to the southern part of the province. Willows and maples are important for early spring brood rearing.--F. W. L. Sladen.

OPUNTIA, see Prickly Pear.

ORANGE (Citrus aurantium).

The orange tree is a native of Asia, early introduced by the colonists into Florida. It thrives in a semi-tropical climate and its culture in America is confined to southern Florida, a few small areas along the Gulf Coast, the lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas and to California. It is sensitive to frost and the trees are easily killed by freezing.

In California, orange is one of the important sources of honey. The trees bloom in April, when many colonies are too weak to make the most of the crop. The flow is extremely rapid, as at times the nectar is secreted in such abundance that men and horses working in the orchards are saturated with it. The flow lasts about three weeks. In 1919 it continued 23 days in Tulare County. Four hundred colonies in one yard averaged more than 60 pounds per colony from orange. O. F. Darnell, of Porterville, extracted 171 pounds of orange honey from one colony in ten days, after having previously extracted 24 frames which were not weighed. A. W. Gambs, of Anderson, reported that some colonies, made extra strong by drifting bees, stored four full-depth extracting supers of fresh nectar from orange in four days.

In some of the interior valley locations the bees get fair crops from orange about four years in five. Along the coast, the fogs are unfavorable and the crop is uncertain. Good orange locations are much in demand, and many beekeepers move their bees long distances for the flow. With a larger reserve supply of honey, left in the hives for winter to enable the bees to build up early in spring, and with more careful attention to wintering, it would be possible to greatly increase the average returns from orange. This statement is based on the results of a few beekeepers who take special pains to get their bees into condition for the orange flow.

The honey from orange is white in color, heavy in body, of the finest quality, and is much in demand in the markets.

OREGON CRAB APPLE, see Crab Apple.

OREGON--Honey Sources of.

J. W. Wills, of Marion County, Oregon, lists the principal honey plants of that State in the American Bee Journal as follows:

Willow, chickweed, balm-of-Gilead, salmonberry, dandelion, fruit trees, grapes, currants, gooseberries, maples, clover, Juneberry, barberry, huckleberries, laurel, milkweed, lobelia, catnip, snowberry, arrowwood, Spanish needle and some others.

P. W. Nicolle, in Gleanings, adds that chittam (=Rhamnus purshiana=) is one of the principal sources. He mentions, also, salal (=Gaultheria shallon=) as a source of nectar. Salal is frequently mentioned as valuable in Oregon.

OREGON GRAPE (Berberis nervosa).

Oregon grape is common in the woodlands near the Coast from Marin County, California, northward. It is abundant in the forest regions of Washington. It is a shrub with prickly alternate leaves and yellow flowers in racemes. Oregon grape is reported as a source of honey of minor importance in the Northwest. Like the agarites or triple-leaved barberry of Texas, it blooms in early spring when it is of special value for stimulative purposes. Another species of barberry (=Berberis Aquifolium=) is common to this region, and most beekeepers do not differentiate between the two species. (See Barberry.)

OREOCARYA.

A desert plant growing on high, loose, sandy soils. Blooms in May, with a small bur following the bloom. It ranges from Wyoming to Arizona and west Texas. It yields nectar freely and an average of forty pounds per colony has been reported from this source. The honey is light amber, of inferior flavor, according to D. W. Spangler, of Longmont, Colorado, but it is extremely valuable for building up colonies in spring. Extended cultivation is rapidly reducing the area where the plant is to be found.

P

PALM.

Royal palms (=Roystonea regia=) are very abundant in Cuba and Porto Rico and are probably the most characteristic trees of those islands. They are also to be found to some extent in the southern portions of the United States. As sources of honey these trees are important in the West Indies, where they yield nectar abundantly.

The date palm (=Phoenix dactylifera=) has been planted to a limited extent in the desert regions of the Southwestern United States. This species is reputed to be a splendid source of nectar.

The cocoanut palm (=Cocos nucifera=) is the most important of all the palm trees, since the nuts furnish large quantities of food, much used in tropical countries. This species is common in the West Indies and in southern Florida. Although the source of considerable honey it is not equal to the foregoing species as a source of nectar. (See also Palmetto).

PALMETTO (Sabal).

The palmettos are the most conspicuous feature of the flora of the south half of Florida. (Fig. 104.) The cabbage palmetto is a tree, while the saw or scrub palmetto grows more like the underbrush in northern forests. To the man accustomed to dense forests, the open, park-like growth of the palmettos hardly seems like woodland. The illustration gives a good idea of the typical Florida landscape.

This group of plants is not important in America, outside of the State of Florida. A small area in lower Texas, about the mouth of the Rio Grande River, is covered by a species of palmetto closely resembling the cabbage palmetto, but it is thought to be a different species. An occasional tree is also found along the seacoast as far north as Charleston, S. C. They are to be found also as street trees in various southern cities along the Gulf Coast and in south Texas. The small saw palmetto (=Serenoa serrulata=) also extends its range into Georgia and the Carolinas, in open pine woodlands.

In Florida both forms are sufficiently abundant to furnish nectar in quantity worthy the attention of the commercial beekeeper. However, in too many localities there is little else available, so that the season between flows is too long to make beekeeping worth while. To take advantage of the palmetto flows and at the same time get good crops through the rest of the year, the late O. O. Poppleton practiced migratory beekeeping. His apiaries were moved several times during the year, so as to be near different sources in the period of bloom. The great drawback to beekeeping in Florida is the lack of a sufficient variety of honey plants in one location to support the bees profitably throughout the year. There are a few localities, of course, where this does not apply.

The cabbage palmetto (=Sabal palmetto=) (Fig. 102) gets its name from the cabbage-like formation in the bud at the top of the growing trunk. The tree grows 25 to 35 feet in height and has large fan-shaped leaves several feet long. It grows along the Atlantic Coast to the north line of Florida, but in the interior is not found in abundance more than about two-thirds of the way.

The tree blooms during July and August, the latter date applying to northern parts of the State. The blossoms are very delicate and have been likened by Professor Baldwin to a giant ostrich plume. (Fig. 105). According to his statement, the flowerlets are sensitive to weather conditions. Too much moisture blights them, while the opposite extreme blasts the delicate bloom. As a consequence, it does not yield abundantly more than about one year in three, although at times it yields very profusely.

“On the St. Lucie River, Mr. Hill extracted, barreled and shipped
3,500 pounds of palmetto honey from 55 colonies in two weeks.”--Page
489, American Bee Journal, 1899.

While palmetto honey is regarded as of very high quality, the honey from the cabbage tree is rather thin and requires some care in getting it properly ripened, as the following quotations will show:

“Cabbage palmetto honey, sealed or unsealed, will foam as though
fermentation was in progress; that taken from the combs unsealed
will ferment enough to deprive it of all the honey flavor, but the
sealed only foams. Thin and acid and amber in color, it will flow
bubbling from the cells behind the knife, and it is not a rare thing
to see gas bubbles under the cappings of the sealed cells. Whether
the colonies are strong or weak, it is always the same, when the bees
work on the cabbage trees, as the common palm tree of Florida is
called. The name comes from the fact that the bud in the head at the
top is eaten in lieu of cabbage.

“The saw palmetto is decidedly different in the nectar it yields. Saw
palmetto honey, even unsealed, may be called a good honey, and it is,
too. When ripened it is a honey that makes a name for itself when
enough care is taken by the producer to have it unmixed with other
nectars.

“I write from personal experience on the east coast of Florida.”--L.
K. Smith, Gleanings, page 39, 1909.

The saw palmetto (=Serenoa serrulata=), often called scrub palmetto (Fig. 103), is a low growing little palm, found on dry soils in the Gulf Coast region. In the southern portion of its range, in peninsular Florida, it attains the proportions of a small tree. There it sometimes reaches a height of 20 feet, with erect or inclined trunk. Further north the stem is almost invariably underground. Large areas of pine lands are covered with it.

The blooming time is April and May. O. O. Poppleton wrote concerning his calendar of the year:

“April--Saw palmetto flow commences early in the month and continues
until last of May. Our apiary work these two months is extracting,
building up all colonies and replacing poor queens.”--Beekeepers’
Review, page 11, 1893.

Concerning the honey flow from saw palmetto we quote E. G. Baldwin as follows:

“The honey from saw palmetto is lemon-yellow in color, thick and
waxy and of pronounced but delicious flavor. It is not quite so
transparent as pure orange honey, but seldom candies, and makes a
choice table article. Mr. O. O. Poppleton pronounces it the best
honey in Florida, with the possible exception of tupelo. It is liked
by almost everyone at first taste; is a trifle milder, even, than
orange.”--Gleanings, page 177, 1911.

Forest fires frequently destroy many square miles of the saw palmetto, thus removing this source of nectar for one year. However, according to Baldwin, the burned-over portions usually produce the most honey the following year.

Concerning the flow from palmetto, E. B. Rood, of Bradentown, writes as follows:

“We have been having the heaviest honey flow from palmetto for ten
years. One colony on scales brought in 50 pounds in four days,
and 80 pounds in ten days. I expect 20,000 to 30,000 pounds. I
have extracted 13,000 pounds now and am just starting on another
round.”--Gleanings, page 703, 1908.

PARADISE FLOWER, see Acacia.

PARSNIP (Pastinaca sativa).

The cultivated parsnip is a valuable honey plant. In the seed belt of California, where it is grown largely for seed, it is important as a source of surplus. Writing in Gleanings (November, 1919) E. R. Root mentions having seen hives five and six stories high, jammed full of honey from parsnip and celery. He states that the honey is not of the best, and that honey from parsnip is inferior to that gathered from celery.

PARTRIDGE PEA (Cassia Chamaechrista).

Partridge pea, known also as sensitive pea, is an important source of honey in Georgia and Florida. The flowers, of an attractive yellow color, are about the size shown in Figure 106, which displays blossom, seedpod and leaf. This plant is common along sandy roadsides in the Middle West, and may at times be found for miles at a stretch. It is seldom reported as an important source of surplus honey, except in the Southeastern States. While the bees visit it freely while in bloom in the Northern States, the honey stored from this source is seldom noticeable.

The plant is peculiar in that in addition to the flowers, nectar is secreted by extra floral nectaries at the base of the leaf stalk or petiole. The bloom lasts for several weeks in midsummer. As the bloom comes for the most part after the close of the clover harvest, its chief value in the North is to keep the bees occupied till the later flowers furnish a fall flow. The quality stored from this source is reported as poor in the North.

In contrast, the following report indicates that it is valuable in Georgia and Florida:

“Bees store from one to three supers, during its flow, of light
honey. The flow begins in June and lasts until October.”--Wilder in
American Bee Journal, page 369, 1912.

PEACH (Prunus persica).

The cultivated peach is an important source of nectar over a wide scope of country. In localities where large peach orchards are found, it is important for building up colonies in spring. Like most of the tree fruits, the blooming period comes early, before the bees are strong enough to profit to the fullest extent from the abundance of nectar.

PEAR (Pyrus).

The cultivated pear is old-world origin, but now widely distributed in America. Where grown commercially, it is the source of abundant nectar and pollen in early spring. Most varieties of the pear bloom ahead of the apple. Nearly all the tree fruits furnish nectar in abundance and all are valued highly by the beekeeper.

The pear is subject to blight, which destroys thousands of trees every year. For a time the honeybee was accused of spreading the blight by her visits from tree to tree. There is now serious doubt whether it is possible for the bee to spread this disease. Experiments by Dr. J. H. Merrill, at Kansas Agricultural College, indicate that the aphids are the carriers of the infection.

PENNSYLVANIA--Honey sources of.

Pennsylvania is in what is generally known as the white clover region. White and alsike clover are of first importance. Buckwheat, in some sections, is also a main source of surplus. In spring, the willows and maples, followed by dandelion and fruit bloom, furnish both nectar and pollen for early brood rearing. In the mountains, azalea and laurel furnish some honey. Black locust, tulip-poplar and sumac are valuable in certain localities. Basswood, goldenrod and asters should also be included as of local importance.

PENNYROYAL, see Wild Pennyroyal.

PEONY.

The cultivated peonies are introduced from Asia and are commonly grown for ornament. Most varieties are double and produce no pollen. The single varieties, however, produce pollen in abundance, and at times the bees seek them eagerly. The writer has seen as many as six to eight bees gathering pollen on a single blossom. The opening buds also seem to exude a nectar-like substance sought by ants and bees.

PEPPERBUSH or WHITE ALDER (Clethra alnifolia).

The sweet pepperbush occurs from Maine along the coast to Florida and west to Louisiana. It is a small shrub with white flowers, as shown in Figure 107, which appear in midsummer. In Alabama, Georgia and north Florida, it is common in the coast plain, on swampy banks of streams and in low, wet thickets. It is very fragrant when in bloom and is often used for ornamental planting on lawns and in parks. The honey is thick, white and of fine flavor. In localities where the plant occurs abundantly, in the wild state, it seldom fails to bloom, since it grows in wet places and is unaffected by drought.

PEPPERIDGE, see Tupelo.

PEPPER-TREE (Schinus molle).

The pepper-tree, a native of western South America, has been widely planted in California for ornament and shade. Its bright red berries are a substitute for pepper, hence the name. It is a well-known tree on the Pacific coast, as far north as Martinez, on the Suisun Bay. It is grown in parks, on lawns and along the streets of nearly every Southern California city.

While a small amount of bloom may be seen at almost any time of the year, its principal period is in late summer when there is a scarcity of nectar-secreting blossoms (Fig. 108). The blossoms are rich in nectar and the bees gather some surplus from this source. The honey is amber in color, strong and rather peppery in flavor.

The flowers are small and of a greenish or yellowish color, in large sprays. The berries ripen in November and December.

PEPPER-VINE, see Snowvine.

PERSICARIA, see Heartsease.

PERSIMMON (Diospyros).

The persimmon, or possom-wood (=Diospyros virginiana=), grows from southern New England south and west to Missouri, Arkansas, Florida and along the gulf to Texas. It is a tree of medium size, reaching a height of 50 feet and rarely exceeding 12 inches in diameter. (Fig. 109). The fruit is composed of a rich and palatable pulp and a few large seeds. When green it is very astringent and very disagreeable. The flowers appear in May in the southern part of its range, and later northward. Where abundant, persimmon is a valuable source of nectar. The Mexican persimmon (=Diospyros Texana=), called also date plum, is a shrub or tree 10 to 30 feet in height. It thrives best in canyons and ravines, and is common over much of south Texas. It is frequently reported as an important source of early nectar in many parts of Texas.

Franklin Sherman, Jr., lists the persimmon as sixth in importance of the honey sources of North Carolina. He states that it is irregular in yield and lasts but a short time, but does well while it lasts.

PHACELIA (Phacelia).

Jepson described thirteen species of phacelia as native to California. Of these Richter lists four as of value to the beekeeper. Hill vervenia (=Phacelia distans=) he lists as common in the plains and foothills, yielding both nectar and pollen. The caterpillar phacelia (=Phacelia hispida=) is listed as common in the chaparral belt, yielding a water-white honey of fine flavor that candies soon after extracting. This is common in Ventura County, and M. H. Mendleson reports that he extracted a carload of honey from this source before the blooming of the sages. =Phacelia ramosissima= is reported as a fair honey plant, but not equal to the others. The valley vervenia, or fiddle neck (=Phacelia tanacetifolia=) is listed by Jepson (“Flora of Western Middle California”) as found in the Sacramento Valley and southward to southern California. It blooms in April and furnishes bee pasture in about six weeks from seed, and the bloom lasts about six weeks.

“The nectar flows all day. The honey is amber in color, sometimes
light green and of a mild aromatic flavor. Cows fed on it show
a marked increase in flow of milk, but will not eat it alone at
first.”--Harry E. Horne, page 342 of above book.

This species was introduced into Germany and had quite a boom there in the early nineties. Much attention was given it in the German bee magazines and it was endorsed as valuable both for forage and for bee pasturage.

Scholl lists =Phacelia congesta= and =Phacelia glabra= as yielding sparingly in Texas. Thos. Wm. Cowan writes as follows, in American Bee Journal, in regard to the growing of phacelia in Europe:

“The one grown in Europe, =Phacelia tanacetifolia=, is literally
covered with bees from morning till night. The species was introduced
into Europe from California in 1832, and is called tanacetifolia
(tansy-leaved) from the resemblance of its leaves to those of tansy.
It is an annual with bluish pink flowers, racemes spike-formed,
elongated, corymbose; height of plant two feet. It is grown in Europe
as a bee plant for its nectar, and is the only one which produces an
appreciable quantity of it.”--November 20, 1902, page 751.

A beekeeper from Indiana reports that =Phacelia purshii= grows freely in the wheat fields in his locality and that the bees work freely on the blue flowers. He states that in places it grows so abundantly that the wheat takes second place to the phacelia. On the 27th of May, 1919, strong colonies already had full depth extracting supers almost filled. The honey from this source is of good quality.

PHYSIOLOGY OF NECTAR SECRETION.

What we call individual plants are complex communities of real microscopic individuals, which biologists call cells. These are associated in numerous sub-communities differing from one another in structure and function. Their specialization results in a division of labor and a correspondingly large total efficiency, much as specialization and division of labor lead to efficiency and productive possibilities in a nation consisting of states, and these of smaller communities made up of trades, guilds and professions, which in co-operation follow the manifold activities that characterize a nation and collectively constitute the national life of its individuals, which is far more effective and greater than the individual life of any one person or class.

The active, living part of a cell is its protoplasm--the physical basis of life, as Huxley called it in animals and plants alike. Commonly this protoplasm encloses itself by a wall of cellulose, an organic substance manufactured by the protoplasm. Where two cells are in contact, they are usually flattened against one another. When men first began to use the microscope, only a little over two centuries ago, it was the walls and shapes of cells that attracted attention, and the resemblance to honey-comb on a small scale was so striking that the cavities were naturally called cells.

Protoplasm itself is a very complex substance, chemically, and even the much simpler cell-wall is far from being always really one identical substance. A considerable part of the thickening of matured cell-walls has been laid down on the original partition between two cells, and not only differs from this but is not alike in different kinds of cells, and in structures like wood and cork it is impregnated with other materials that affect the cell-wall very greatly in such respects as hardness and permeability to water.

The shells of nuts, for instance, are so impervious that they are commonly “stratified” by planters so that their hard shells may disintegrate more or less as a preliminary to germination, a process that not infrequently requires more than a year unless hastened by some expedient like that of passing haw fruits through the digestive mill of poultry as a means of softening their boney cores, of filing the hard envelope, which is a favorite trick of gardeners with nut-like fruits of the lotus or with canna seeds. (This is similar to the scarifying of sweet clover seed.--Editor.) This is the reason that several times as much clover seed--even good seed--must be used on an acre as seems necessary for securing the desired number of plants. One of these modifications is usual in the outer layers of cell-walls on the surface, and it is called cuticularization. Cuticularized walls are more or less completely water-proofed. When the cells that produce nectar are at the surface, their outer walls are cuticularized in this way; when they are within the nectary and the nectar passes out through stomata, this is scarcely, if at all, the case.

The greater part of nectar is water, which reaches the surface from within the plant cells. To do this it must pass through walls that are little, if at all, cuticularized, or it must break through the cuticle. This does not mean that it must break through the entire cell-wall; a small part if this is modified by the protoplasm into a gum or mucilage, or some similar substance, and the water accumulates in this layer and swells it until the overlying cuticle is burst. Some form of sugar is a frequent result of this disintegration of cellulose. Dissolved sugars pass through the ordinary cellulose wall, but they do not pass through the ordinary surface layer of protoplasm in the outer cells.

When water is separated from a solution like that of sugar by a filter of this sort, which allows water to pass but is not permeable to the dissolved substance, the action is set up that physicists call osmosis, and water accumulates on the side of the dissolved substance until it exercises a very considerable pressure. This action not only bursts the cuticle, when it starts beneath it, but results in a flow of water within the plant at that point.

The absorbing roots of plants show another result of this physical property, osmosis. They are not waterproofed; water is continuous through them, from the thin layer in which it occurs about particles of the soil, to the water which composes a great part of the weight of the protoplasm within the cells. This sap of the root cells contains dissolved sugar and other osmotic substances. Osmotic absorption by the roots results in a pressure of several atmospheres. This pressure, passed from cell to cell, gives the crispness to fresh celery. Its loss, through evaporation from the leaves, results in the loss of this crispness, or wilting.

When evaporation is slight, as in a saturated atmosphere, water exudes at the surface through pores such as occurs at the tip of a young grass or clover leaf. Water pores of this sort are common. They are regarded as pressure-valves by many botanists. The water that they eliminate is usually filtered by the protoplasm that it passes through, which does not allow the passage of substances dissolved in the cell sap; but some plants which grow where they absorb very “hard” water pass lime salts out through their water pores to such an extent that they are encrusted with lime as the water evaporates.

The safety-valve elimination of water under strong internal pressure and lessened normal evaporation is hardly to be called excretion or accretion; the extruded-water is neither by-product nor manufactured output. The elimination of lime appears to be on the border line of excretion.

Nectar is not merely water; if it were its production would be more easily understood. To the taste, it is sweet; to the sense of smell, it is often fragrant; occasionally it is poisonous; often it is somewhat colored. Commonly it is very fluid, but in the nectar-cups of poinsettia it becomes very gummy. These properties come from substances--sugars, volatile oils, poisonous organic compounds--that were made by and in the plant, and they differ in different kinds of plants. Whatever bees or ants may do in changing nectar into honey, they do not entirely change or remove these substances, and the rank brown honey of the drug store is as easily run to its source as the popular white clover honey, the daintily flavored product of western alfalfa, the aromatic acid honey of the red raspberry, or the greenish product of the sweet clover with its delicate vanilla-like aroma, the cumarin source of which shows itself in an occasional head-ache, much as the minor organic constituents of some honeys derived from the heath family now and then prove seriously poisonous.

A fluid that contains these organic substances necessarily falls into the category of excretions or secretions, according as it represents waste or usable material. As either excretion or secretion it is the product of specialized organs, glands, and its appearance marks these glands as in action or performing their function. Whatever else may be involved, this depends upon the activity of their protoplasm, or is controlled by it. When this is killed, secretion or excretion stops.

At left (34) cross section of filament.]

One result of the protean character of protoplasm is its different behavior in different plants, different organs of the same plant or different phases of the activity of an individual cell. In either case it can perform its functions only between certain limits of environment, and it performs them best somewhere between these limits. For each function and each condition there is what physiologists call a minimum--below which it is not carried on, a maximum--above which it has stopped, and an optimum--or most favorable. Just as in the efficient working of a human factory, power and raw materials are necessary, and workmen must be onto the job, however favorable the other conditions of manufacture may be.

The secretion of nectar and the storing of honey are consequently not quite comparable, for the activities of the honey plant are concerned with the first, and the activities of the bee are concerned with the second, though these are largely influenced by what the plant is or is not doing. This must be remembered always when comparing such records of honey-storing as Mr. Strong’s careful hive-weighings through a generation, with Mr. Kenoyer’s quantitative measurements of nectar secretion.

Nevertheless, the most favoring conditions of nectar secretion and honey storing agree in a number of respects. Vigorous early development or the plant puts it in condition to do its share of the work best; whatever conditions may prevail during what for most plants is a very short part of the growing season, when it is in bloom. Vigorous early development of the hive bears the same kind of relation to the final result. Early honey must be stored before the bees have reached the full strength of the season, which may have something to do-with the fact that the bulk of the harvest is gleaned from plants that flower later or continue to flower for a relatively long time.

Mr. Strong’s observations in Iowa show that over half of the net increase in honey storage in southern Iowa is made in June, and over four-fifths in June and July. These are the months when the most productive nectar plants flower, and the hives have reached the crest of their speculative activity and are undergoing division by that time.

Physiological studies show that the afternoon temperature for nectar secretion is high--between 90 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Observation on the hive shows that its workers are at their active best in moderately hot weather. Mr. Strong’s twenty-nine-year average shows that over half of the average honey for the year is stored when the daily maximum is between 80 and 90 degrees, and nine-tenths of it is stored when the high temperature of the day is between 80 and 90 degrees. Nectar is most abundantly secreted, other conditions being equal, in warm days following cool nights; bees do not seem usually to work more actively on such days, though a record day for heather honey in England began with a frost. Damp air increases the quantity of nectar, as of the expulsion of water through water pores; but dull, rainy weather lessens or stops the activity of the bees.

Nuptial nectar is secreted chiefly before or during the period of sexual maturity of the flowers. Many, like cotton, golden currant and horse-chestnut, change color as this period of sexual functioning and maximum nectar secretion passes, and bees often are quick to catch the signal. Extra-nuptial nectar is secreted in greatest quantity while the near-by flowers and foliage of the plant are young.

Nectar differs from time to time in quality as well as in quantity. In damp weather the increased quantity commonly causes a greater dilution of its content of sugar, and the bees have been shown to store a greater weight of honey several days after a rainy day than immediately following it. Though the greater part of nectar is water, its essential part, for the bee-man, is sugar, chiefly a mixture of two kinds of sugar, that possess a different molecular arrangement though containing the same number of carbon, hydrogen and starch atoms, which causes them to behave differently when examined by polarized light, and materially affects other of their physical properties.

The flow of the water of nectar seems to be like that of water through water pores, an infiltration under pressure when root-absorption is least active and leaf evaporation checked; but thoroughly and repeatedly washing the glands sometimes puts a stop to it. Beating rain does this as effectively as experimental washing. Change of position and closing in dark, rainy weather characterize some flowers, and keep the rain from washing away their accumulated nectar and checking its replenishment. This was Sprengel’s explanation of the fringe of hair on the petals of the wild geranium. In proportion as such nectar guards are effective, they preserve the supply and contribute to its continuance, in proportion as rain has opportunity to beat upon the nectar glands it wastes and may even check the production of nectar.

This stopping of nectar flow by washing away the secretion of the glands, is connected with the affinity for water of sugars. The flow of water appears to be started by the osmotic force of the disintegrated part of the walls of the secreting cells; it is stopped when the resulting substance has been removed from the outer surface of the secreting cells.

If this were all, unless the degenerating cellulose were replenished in sufficient quantity there would hardly be such a thing as honey production. Indeed, some extra-nuptial glands secrete a nectar containing so little sugar that even ants may not be attracted by it--as is said to be the case with climbing smartweeds cultivated in England, though it is not usually true of such plants growing wild here, where they are at home. Commonly, however, the sugar in nectar is replenished while the secretion of fluid continues.

The passage out of sugar from a living cell is very different from the escape of water; the latter may result from pressure on the one hand or osmotic draft on the other, because the outer protoplasm is permeable to water but not to sugar. When sugar is secreted, this protoplasmic layer becomes to a greater or less degree permeable to the escaping sugar. This is one phase of the activity of the living protoplasm, for secretion is a vital phenomenon. What greater or less permeability of protoplasm actually consists in is a matter of theory rather than observation, but the phenomenon is a subject of observation and experiment. Alternating warmth and cold, within limits, affect it; it has its optimum, at a rather high temperature, as well as its minimum and maximum. Through an adequately permeable membrane, the flow of either water or sugar may be outwards--as it is in normal secretion, or inwards--when the secretion is absorbed--as experiments show to be true under some conditions.

Water for nectar secretion is obtained in the first place through the roots of the plant and travels from the point of absorption to the point of secretion. Sugar for nectar secretion is manufactured within the plant, very close to the point where it is secreted. It is primarily a product of the carbon-fixing or photo-synthetic activity that marks green plants as the food-makers of the world. Sugars appear to be among the earliest-formed of such carbon-containing or organic substances in the plant; but usually they are changed into starch for storage, and this is subsequently digested or transformed into a soluble sugar when the time of its use comes. The cells about some nectar glands are storage repositories of, sugar; in other cases they accumulate a reserve of starch, as raw material, before their activities begin in supplying sugar.

Evidently, back of the nectar-production of a given day or season, very closely related to its own optimum conditions of temperature and humidity, lies the earlier vegetation of the nectar-producing plants. Strength and vigor of growth, a good reserve of stored food from the year before, or favorable spring season, these would seem logically to affect the activity of the plant in performing this as well as others of its functions. Kenoyer’s conclusions, from Strong’s honey-gathering statistics, give support to this expectation: “There is an evident alteration between good and poor years,” as in apple production; “a good year has a rainfall slightly above the average, preceded by an autumn, winter and spring with more than the average precipitation,” affording adequate and lasting soil moisture; “a rainy May scarcely fails to precede a good honey season,” for the same reason, “a cold winter has no detrimental effect on the yield of the succeeding season, but a cold March reduces it,” through preventing a fair early growth of the honey plants; “a winter of heavy snowfall, in the great majority of cases, is followed by a larger honey yield,” because of its contribution to the soil moisture and the protection afforded the plants during their hibernation.

Of these conclusions, most bear directly on the conditions favorable for nectar secretion by the plants; some bear as directly on those favorable for the wintering in prime condition of the bees. Honey production rests upon both, not only in June and July and on individual days in those months of greatest honey storage, but on preceding days and months of preparation. Perhaps the suggestion may be made, even that it goes much further back, through long centuries of selective evolution, side by side, of nectar-yielding plants and honey-storing insects, gradually coming into mutually helpful harmony.--William Trelease, University of Illinois. American Bee Journal, January, 1920.

PIGEON BERRY, see Buckthorn.

PIGEON CHERRY, see Wild Cherry.

PIN CLOVER or FILAREE (Erodium cicutarium).

The pin clover, or alfilaria, or filaree, is widely distributed in the Old World, and in this country has been naturalized from Europe. It is especially well known on the Pacific Coast from British Columbia to southern California. There it is said to be one of the most valuable wild pasture plants.

It is also called pin grass and heron’s bill. It has a long period of bloom, beginning in February or March in California, and in some places continuing through the summer. It produces an abundance of pollen and considerable honey of good quality. In Gray’s botany it is listed as “storksbill,” and is mentioned as scarce in New York and Pennsylvania. It is recorded as occurring in Alabama, where it apparently was carried with railroad ballast. June is given as the blooming period in the vicinity of Mobile.

It is also known in several places in Connecticut, where it is said to bloom in May and June. Professor Pammel states that it is abundant in the dry soils in the Salt Lake basin and from Colorado to Texas. The seeds cling to the wool of sheep and this aids in its wide distribution.

Figure 110 shows the plant with blossom and seed pod. It is from the peculiar shape of the latter that it gets the name of “storksbill” and “heron’s bill.”

PINE (Pinus).

Occasionally honeydew is reported from the pine trees. The following references are typical of those to be found in current literature:

“We are having a real flow of water-white honeydew from the pine here
in Polk County. It has been on now for two weeks. Bees in general are
in bad condition.”--Luther Presswood, Reliance, Tenn., Jan. 18, 1907.
American Bee Journal, page 98, 1907.

“Large quantities of honey are often secured from pine woods in
certain parts of Germany. The honey is nearly black in color, still
it finds many admirers, and must, therefore, be of better quality
than the honeydew gathered here at times. The Emmendingen Beekeepers’
Society furnishes all the honey for the Grand Duke’s table (in
Karlsruhe), and it is specified that the honey must be this black
honey of the pine woods.”--Bztg. für Schlesw.--Holstein. American Bee
Journal, page 616, 1906.

Similar honeydew is harvested in Switzerland and appears to be also much prized by the consumers.

PLUM (Prunus).

Plums, both wild and cultivated, are important sources of nectar over most of the United States. There are twenty or more species which are native to North America and which are generally known as wild plums. The blooming period comes early and with other tree fruits they are of great value as the source of nectar and pollen at a season when the colonies most need stimulation. The nectar yield is sufficiently abundant for the bees to store surplus where colonies are strong and weather conditions favorable. In Sacramento County, California, surplus is sometimes reported from prunes. There are probably few places where bees are kept in America where plums of some variety are not present.

POINSETTIA (Euphorbia pulcherrima).

The poinsettia is a well-known ornamental plant. It is a shrub, native to tropical America, grown to a considerable extent for ornamental purposes in California. The blossoms are small and inconspicuous, but there is a striking cluster of brilliant red leaves, surrounding the flowers, which give an impression of flowers.

The nectaries are very conspicuous cups at the side of the blossoms. Nectar is secreted in abundance, and if the plant was sufficiently common it would be an important source. The nectar gathers in large drops.

POISON IVY, see Laurel; also Sumac.

POISON OAK, see Sumac.

POISONOUS HONEY.

Much has been written in regard to poisonous honey. Well authenticated cases of serious poisoning from honey are rare, so rare, indeed, that many persons doubt whether such cases occur. There are persons with a peculiar susceptibility to honey from any source. To such, honey may seem to be poisonous, which can be eaten by others without any ill effect. Prof. A. J. Cook, writing in the American Bee Journal (October 12, 1905, page 711), mentioned having on several occasions received samples of so-called poisonous honey, which he ate without inconvenience.

In December, 1880, issue of American Bee Journal, page 552, a case is mentioned where a native of New Zealand died from eating honey gathered from the wharangi bush (=Melicope ternata=), which is said to be one of the two poisonous plants to be found in New Zealand. The symptoms are reported similar to strychnine poisoning. A letter from New Zealand published in Gleanings, page 435, 1908, reads as follows:

“Some one, usually a native, gets poisoned every year about here
through eating bush honey, usually not capped, and puka-puka usually
gets the blame. Mr. Hopkins had a look at a case of Maoris honey
poisoning last year, and I think puka-puka got the blame; but the
fact is significant, nevertheless, that it is the Maoris only, or
principally they, that get poisoned, and in that case the honey eaten
is never capped.”--Stephen Anthony, Wastete, New Zealand.

The mountain laurel (=Kalmia latifolia=) is the plant most frequently reported as yielding poisonous honey. This shrub is common to the mountain regions of the Eastern States, and it would seem that cases of poisoning would be reported much more frequently if there was good reason to suspect the honey from this source. It is a well-known fact that disagreeable odors disappear from honey that is well ripened. In this connection a writer in American Bee Journal, page 664, 1884, suggests that there is no evidence of poisoning from well ripened honey. He further states that uncapped honey from the yellow jasmine is actually poisonous and has produced death, but that after it is capped there is no honey more wholesome. It should be noted that special emphasis was placed on the fact that the cases of poisoning in New Zealand were from eating uncapped honey.