AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 



121 



in grain fields and stubbles late in summer, after cultivation has ceased, 

 thus offering plentiful forage for the bees, in fields where otherwise they 

 would find nothing. 



HEATHER (Calluna vulgaris). 



Heather is a very important honey plant in Europe, but occurs in few 

 places in America. Gray's botany lists it at the following places: "Low 

 grounds, Massachusetts at Tewksbury and West Andover; Maine, at Cape 



Blossoms of the heather 



in Eastern America, though it is doubt- 

 MacDonald has the following comments 



Elizabeth; also Nova Scotia; Cape Breton; New Foundland, etc." It may 

 in time become locally importan 

 ful whether it be so at present. 

 Writing in Gleanings, D. M. 

 on heather honey in Scotland: 



"The product of heather is of a rich amber color, bright and spark- 

 ling, rather than dull and shady. It has a pronounced flavor, delicious 

 to the palate when one has acquired a liking for it. The aroma is 

 pungent and penetrating, making itself manifest in a room where 

 heather honey is kept in a closed cupboard. Its consistency is so re- 

 markable that it will not leave the comb by any amount of centrifugal 

 force used in the extractor, and when desired in the liquid form, the 

 combs have to be melted and pressed by heavy screw power in a 

 specially constructed press. Most beekeepers in heather districts, 

 therefore, work for sections only; but it pays well to press all defec- 



