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The Swarm: Narbonne

In France the rosemary of Narbonne has made the honey of that region famous; but we learn that this, like the honey of Hymettus, is living principally upon its past reputation, for the peasants have turned their attention to the vineyards to the neglect of the bees, so that the supply of rosemary honey from Narbonne is yearly diminishing. Languedoc also supplies rosemary honey of high renown, while the balm of Pontus has given that honey a name. "A species of broom (Spartium nubigerum), growing abundantly in the Canary Islands, renders the Peak of Teneriffe productive of a very pure and transparent honey, of a delicious aromatic taste, and superior to that of Hymettus," says Bevan.

Nearly all fragrant and bright flowers yield nectar, fragrance, and color, being the plant's invitation to its insect guests to come and feast, and in return convey pollen to it from other plants of the same species, and bear away its pollen to cross-fertilize its neighbors.

Many plants are so modified in form that self-fertilization is impossible, they being dependent upon the pollen brought by visiting insects.

Honey Some flowers ripen the stamens first, so that when the pollen is ripe the pistil is not sufficiently mature to receive it, and when the pistil is ready the pollen is withered or has been removed. Others again ripen the pistil first. Still others have pistils and stamens so placed with relation to each other that the pollen cannot reach the pistil. Some flowers possess only stamens, the pistils being found in other blossoms that have no stamens. Many wonderful and beautiful forms of flowers have developed to insure cross-fertilization by certain insects, an interesting subject which has been greatly developed and much written about in recent years. The task of carrying pollen does not rest wholly with the discretion of the bees, but is obligatory upon them, sometimes indeed proving a very disagreeable necessity, as in those orchids where the pollen masses smear the bees in what must be quite a disagreeable manner, and in the common milkweed, where the pollen is drawn forth in little sticky bundles from the anthers when the bee's body touches them. These sticky masses of milkweed pollen sometimes cling to the feet of the bees and tangle them up so that the little creatures become helpless and perish through the over-zeal of the milkweed. It was doubtless the attachment of these pollen masses to the heads of the bees that Butler refers to as marks of office: - " Besides their sovereign, the bees have also subordinate governors and leaders, not unfitly resembling captains and coronels of soldiers. For, different from the rest, they bear for their crest a tuft or tossel, in some colored yellow, in some murrey, in manner of a plume; whereof some turn downward like an Ostric-feather, others stand upright like a Hern-top. And of both sorts some are greater and some less, as if there were degrees of those dignities among them. In all other respects they are like to the vulgar." The value of bees to the production of various fruits and vegetables is inestimable, as the horticulturist of to-day well knows; and the wise farmer has a row of bee-hives not far from the orchard, that he may win, not only a store of delectable sweets, but also a sure crop from his fruit trees. It has been frequently demonstrated that orchards which year after year failed to bear, upon the introduction of bee-hives at once yielded a good crop. Unless the flowers are well fertilized no fruit will set; or if it does the apples or pears will be small and imperfect.

The members of the Gourd Family, to which belong the melons, pumpkins, and cucumbers, are not self-fertilizing; consequently, when cucumbers are raised in greenhouses for the winter market the gardener himself is obliged to convey the pollen from the staminate flowers to the pistils of the pistillate, or else press into service the bees. This he sometimes does, and certain large cucumberhouses are now supplied with bee-hives. Every one knows the story of the attempt to introduce red clover into Australia and New Zealand. The clover flourished admirably when first sown, but would set no seed. For some mysterious reason clover fields in these countries were a failure.

The secret of the relation between the bumble-bee and the clover became known to the colonists, and a few nests of bumble-bees being introduced into the sterile fields settled the difficulty, thenceforth bumble-bees and clover assisting each other to the fulfilment of their destiny.

The amount of nectar yielded by flowers is surprising, but the amount of honey collected by bees depends not only upon the abundance of nectar obtainable but upon the condition of the hive.