LOGWOOD. 



303 



MANGROVE. 



to excel it. The lioney obtained from log- 

 wood, in point of color, body, and flavor, is 

 equal to the finest table honey in the world; 

 indeed, it is almost water-white, and the 

 bouquet is of the best. It blooms after a 

 season of rains, lience it may give four crops 

 in a year, and frequently gives three where 

 the climate admits of it. When the condi- 

 tions are favorable it yields enormously. It 

 is a common tree over the whole peninsula 

 of Yucatan, including British Honduras; 

 and were the people of that country to en- 

 gage extensively in apiculture, logwood 

 honey would cut quite a figure in the Euro- 

 pean and American markets. When in a 



pure state, unmixed with other flavors, the 

 price obtained for it is so liigh tliat the tar- 

 iff duty does not interfere with its sale in 

 New York. However, much of it is mixed 

 with honey from other sources, or perhaps is 

 not properly handled, hence it does not cut 

 much of a figure in the honey markets of the 

 world at present. Probably tlie bulk of it 

 goes to Hamburg, Germany, and Antwerp, 

 while Jamaica ships her output mostly to 

 London. The principal exporting countries 

 of logwood honey are San Domingo, Haiti, 

 Hondiuas, and Jamaica. 



LUCERNE. See Alfalfa. 



M. 



IMANIFULATIVra FRAIVIISS. 



See FuA^iKS, How to Manitulate; also 

 Reversing. 



MANGROVE {Avice)tnia Nitida). On 

 tlie list of honey-producing plants and trees of 

 Southern Florida the black mangrove stands 

 at the head. Whether or not this is a true 

 mangrove seems an open question among 

 good authorities. The tree has the appearance 

 and characteristics of lignum vitse, and is 

 said to be of that family. It is an evergreen, 

 designed by nature to follow the red man- 

 grove (not a honey-producer) in the building 

 up of land along tropical and semi-tropical 

 tide waters. For this purpose it is provided 

 with a great number of slender spicules that 

 grow straight up from all parts of the root 

 system to the height of a foot or more above 

 ground, that catch and hold debris and mud 

 washed there at high tide. 



The tree, which often resembles that of 

 the apple in form, varies in size from a mere 

 bush at its northern limit, just above the 

 29th parallel, to a monarch five to seven feet 

 in diameter of trunk on the banks of the 

 lower Indian River and along the coasts of 

 all tropic seas. The bark is of a dark 

 color, the leaves thick, of a dark glossy 

 green above, lighter beneath, and oval 

 in outline, with smooth edges that turn 

 slightly toward the under side. The blos- 

 soms are small white four-petaled flowers 

 growing in clusters of from 10 to 30 at the 

 extremity of three inch-long flower-stems 



that terminate the extremity of each twig. 

 These flowers, in bloom from about June 15 

 to August 1, where growth is fairly plen- 

 tiful, often show large drops of nectar all 

 day long within easy range of large apiaries. 

 In fact, it seems almost impossible to over- 

 stock a good range of this tree at that time, 

 and the crop rarely falls, yet some fail- 

 ures have been experienced, which appears 

 the more remarkable when it is known that 

 the roots of this tree are mostly under water 

 twice a day, at high tide— a fact which 

 would seem to preclude the possibility of 

 its suffering from drouth. 



In 1895 and 1899 the mangrove met with 

 serious disaster from cold through fifty miles 

 south from its northern limit, where it seems 

 more prolific and constant in its secretion of 

 nectar than further south; but it rapidly re- 

 covered, and soon gave full crops as of old. 

 In 1894, the season before the big freeze, 20i 

 tons of extracted honey was secured in one 

 apiary of 116 colonies, at least 15 tons of it 

 being from the black mangrove. Of 200 tons 

 taken within a range of 15 miles of the same 

 yard, at least 130 tons was from this source, 

 gathered from a narrow strip along the coast 

 rivers. 



Pure mangrove honey is white, clearer 

 than that from white clover, and of a light 

 pleasant flavor without any " minty twang." 

 It is not of as heavy body, however, and 

 inclined to ferment if not thoroughly cured 

 and then carefully sealed from moisture. 



