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The Swarm: Kalmia

Again we are told : - "A party of young men, induced by the prospect of gain, having removed their hives from Pennsylvania to the Jerseys, whose vast savannas were finely painted with the flowers of the Kalmia angustifolia, could not use or dispose of their honey, on account of its intoxicating quality; yet the bees increased prodigiously,' an increase only to be explained by their being well and harmlessly fed."

Some plants, however, are poisonous to the bees themselves as the following curious story illustrates: - "A large swarm of bees having settled on a branch of the poison-ash (Rhus Vernix L.) in the county of West Chester in the province of New York, was put into a hive and removed to the place where it was to remain. Next morning the bees were found dead, swelled to double their natural size, and black, except a few which appeared torpid and feeble, and soon died on exposure to the air." And Pliny warns us, "The greatest care should be taken to keep the cornel at a distance from the hive; for if the bees once taste the blossoms of it, they will speedily die."

This certainly is not true of the cornel, the Cornus florida or flowering dogwood of North America. This beautiful little tree that whitens the forests in spring, and whose flowers have an odor of honey, yields a large quantity of harmless nectar to the seeking bees.

Dead bees have been found in tulip flowers and also strewing the shelves and floor of greenhouses where the cineraria was in bloom.

The honey of the yew and also of box - sometimes called hemlock - has a bitter flavor which renders it unpalatable to man, the bitter Corsican honey being frequently referred to by the old writers, and thus by Ovid: " I think it's Corsick honey, and the Bee From the cold Hemlock flowers gathered thee."

There are stories of poisonous honey having been found in most parts of the world, though the laurels and rhododendrons bear the worst name in this respect north of tropical climes.

The plants that yield poisonous honey in the United States are Kalmia angustifolia, the little red-flowered sheeplaurel or lambkill of our northern pastures; Kalmia latifolia, the splendid mountain laurel that makes the woods of Honey Eastern North America such a scene of beauty in the early summer; Kalmia hirsuta; Rhododendron maximum, one of the most glorious of blooming plants; Azalea nudiflora, the lovely purple azalea or pinxter flower that makes the mountains of the Carolinas so charming in the springtime; and Andromeda mariana or stagger-bush whose foliage is poisonous to lambs and calves. On the other hand the pretty little Andromeda nitida bears honeyscented flowers that yield a nectar abundant, delicate and wholesome.