BEES AND PLANTS 203 



honey, and the grower of small fruits may well add 

 bees to his farm as a source of profit. 



GARDEN FLOWERS 



Most of the blooms in flower gardens, as well as 

 vegetable gardens, are worked by the bees. Mignon- 

 ette is a valuable honey-plant, as it blossoms for a 

 long time. Marjoram, thyme and sage give rich, 

 spicy honey. The sunflower is also a good honey- 

 plant. 



WILD FLOWERS AND WEEDS 



We shall never forget our profound amazement 

 when we saw, for the first time, in a narrow valley 

 of the Mojave Desert a great city of white bee-hives. 

 Nothing in that desolate landscape could we discern 

 that bore the slightest resemblance to a honey-plant. 

 The gray sage-brush which grew everywhere looked 

 to us about as promising for honey-production as so 

 much slag from a furnace; and yet this sage-brush 

 of the desert gives the bees the best of pasturage. 

 The bloom begins down in the valley and climbs the 

 mountain side slowly, thus giving bloom for a long 

 period. 



There are two species of sage that yield honey, the 

 white and the black, or button sage. They are 

 allied to the mints, which are generally good honey- 

 plants. We learned to care much for the spicy 

 sage-honey. A professor of Greek, who was for 

 some time in the American school at Athens, tells 

 us that the sage-honey is very similar in flavour to 



