26 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



fine quality to wild thyme. The best honey in Per- 

 sia and in Florida is collected from the orange blos- 

 som. The celebrated honey of Narbonne in the 

 south of France is obtained from a species of rose- 

 mary. In Scotland good honey is made from the 

 blossoming heather. ^ 



California honey is white and delicate and highly 

 perfumed, and now takes the lead in the market. 

 But honey is honey the world over ; and the bee 

 is the bee still. "Men may degenerate," says an 

 old traveler, "may forget the arts by which they 

 acquired renown; manufactures may fail, and com- 

 modities be debased; but the sweets of the wild- 

 flowers of the wilderness, the industry and natural 

 mechanics of the bee, will coutiuue without change 

 or derogation." , 



