10 BEES. 
ite. It lasts nearly the whole season and yields 
richly. It could no doubt be profitably cultivated 
in some localities, and catnip honey would be a 
novelty in the market. It would probably partake 
of the aromatic properties of the plant from which it 
was derived. 
Among your stores of honey gathered before mid- 
summer, you may chance upon a card, or mayhap 
only a square inch or two of comb, in which the liquid 
is as transparent as water, of a delicious quality, with 
a slight flavor of mint. This is the product of the 
linden or basswood, of all the trees in our forest the 
one most beloved by the bees. Melissa, the goddess 
of honey, has placed her seal upon this tree. The 
wild swarms in the woods frequently reap a choice 
harvest from it. I have seen a mountain side thickly 
studded with it, its straight, tall, smooth, light-gray 
shaft carrying its deep-green crown far aloft, like the 
tulip or maple. 
In some of the Northwestern States there are large 
forests of it, and the amount of honey reported stored 
by strong swarms in this section during the time the 
tree is in bloom is quite incredible. As a shade and 
ornamental tree the linden is fully equal to the maple, 
and if it was as extensively planted and cared for, our 
supplies of virgin honey would be greatly increased. 
The famous honey of Lithuania in Russia is the pro- 
duct of the linden. 
It is a homely old stanza current among bee folk 
that — 
‘A swarm of bees in May 
Is worth a load of hay; 
A swarm of bees in June 
Is worth a silver spoon; 
But a swarm in July 
Is uot worth a fly.” 
