AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 123 



the market, heather honey sells readily and is often disposed of be- 

 fore it comes off the hives. Retail prices in warehouses in Edinburg 

 and London are often as high as 48 to 60 cents per section." — October 

 1, 1910. 



In November, 1913, C. P. Dadant, editor of the American Bee Journal, 

 wrote as follows concerning heather in southern France, seen by him dur- 

 ing his visit to Europe in 1913: 



"I had often heard of the 'Landes' of Gascony, but thought them 

 low, sandy plains. They are rolling hills instead, and extend for scores 

 of miles along the Gulf of Gascony. 



"The growth upon the 'Landes' is confined to numerous ferns, 

 scrubby pines and cork oaks, with a very thick undergrowth of 

 heather. Just now the heather is in its fullest bloom (September), and 

 there are perhaps 20 different varieties, ranging from the palest pink 

 to almost red and deep yellow in color. It is a mass of flowers upon 

 which the bees work from June until frost, which comes very late, 

 usually not before November. So we may readily call this the eldo- 

 rado of beekeeping. There is only one dark side to the picture — the 

 heather honey is dark in color, a deep amber, strong in flavor and 

 almost impossible to extract with the honey extractor. Here I ascer- 

 tained positively what I already suspected, that when speaking of nec- 

 tar containing 75 per cent of water, we should confine ourselves to 

 the nectar of our moist prairies. I am told that much of the nectar 

 harvested from heather, in this dry, sandy soil, is too thick at the end 

 of the first day to be thrown out readily." 



HEATHER, see also Eriogonum. 



HEDGE NETTLE or WOUNDWORT (Stachys). 



The hedge nettles are herbs with flowers in terminal spikes as shown 

 in Fig. 72i. The corollas are two-lipped and Stachys agraria is commonly 

 known as "mint" in the Rio Grande Valley. At several places in the ex- 

 treme south part of Texas the author heard reports of surplus honey from 

 this source and from related species. 



Richter lists three species, Stachys ajugoides, the white hedge nettle, 

 Stachys albens, and Stachys bullata, as yielding honey in California. 



Other species are common to the Eastern States from Ontario south 

 to the Gulf States. 



HELENIUM, see Bitterweed. 

 HELIANTHUS. see Sunflower. 



HELIOTROPE (Heliotropium). 



The cultivated heliotrope and also the wild heliotrope (Heliotropium 

 curassavicum) are listed by Richter as sources of honey in California. 

 There is also an occasional mention of heliotrope as a source of nectar in 

 the bee magazines, but probably it is not important. 



HERCULES CLUB or ANGELICA TREE (Aralia spinosa). 



Hercules club or angelica tree is a shrub or small tree common to 

 damp borders of the woods and river banks from Virginia to Missouri, 

 and south to Florida and Louisiana. The flowers are white and appear in 



