118 HONEY. 



honey in vegetables, and consequently the operations 

 of the bees. The quality of the saccharine fluid is 

 influenced by various causes. Something depends 

 on the particular period of the season in which it is 

 collected. In Scotland, the best honey is gathered 

 in the months of June and July, when the white 

 clover (Trifolium repens,) is in bloom; and what 

 is stored in spring, or rather in April and May, is 

 purer and better flavoured than what is obtained in 

 autumn, unless the bees have been during the latter 

 season within reach of heath, the honey from which 

 is of a rich wild flavour, but of a darker colour. The 

 quality of honey is, of course, much influenced by 

 the nature of the plants most frequented by the bees. 

 The famed honey of Hymettus derives its excellence, 

 it is said, from the wild thyme growing so luxuriant- 

 ly on the celebrated mountain from which it derives 

 its name ; that of Narbonne, from the wild rosemary 

 (Rosmarinus officinalis.} The white Dutch clover, 

 and the heath have been already noticed as furnish- 

 ing honey of a superior kind ; and there is a district 

 in Galloway, North Britain, where perhaps the best 

 honey in the kingdom is produced, owing, it is sup- 

 posed, to the great abundance of wild thyme (Thymus 

 serpyllum,) with which the country abounds. 



Instances of honey of a deleterious nature being 

 sometimes met with, have been already noticed, 

 (p. 49.) We have seen it remarked, in. Bee-publi- 

 cations, that the finest honey is got from young 

 swarms ; the fact is so, generally speaking, but not, 

 as we might naturally be led to infer from the asser- 



