17 JUNE 1949, Page 20

A Bee Blossom Editors of country papers are continually asked

to suggest a list of flowers favoured by the hive bee, but in no answering list have I ever seen mentioned a flower which fills my bees with peculiar greed, cotoneaster horizontalis. They are so eager that they wrench the petals apart before the blossoms are open, and the great flat-fish stems hum more loudly with bees than even the limes in the time of the honey-flow. It is everywhere recognised that wild white clover is attractive to bees, and a good supplier of honey, and frequently said that the hive bee has to relinquish red clover to the longer-tongued bumble. This, of course, is true in general, but there is one qualification. Red clover is frequently cut twice, and the flowers• that come after the first cutting are well within the scope of the honey bee, the honey pot being shallower.