A BUNCH OF HERBS. 217 



the flowers ? " Not uniformly. Of the list of fra- 

 grant wild flowers I have given, the only ones that the 

 bees procure honey from, so far as I have observed, 

 are arbutus, dicentra, sugar-maple, locust, and linden. 

 Non-fragrant flowers that yield honey are those of 

 the raspberry, clematis, sumac, white oak, bugloss, 

 ailanthus, golden-rod, aster, fleabane. A large num- 

 ber of odorless plants yield pollen to the bee. There 

 is honey in the columbine, but the bees do not get it. 

 I wonder they have not learned to pierce its spurs 

 from the outside, as they do with dicentra. There 

 ought to be honey in the honeysuckle, but if there 

 is the hive-bees make no attempt to get it. 



WEEDS. 



ONE is tempted to say that the most human 

 plants, after all, are the weeds. How they cling to 

 man and follow him around the world, and spring up 

 wherever he sets his foot. How they crowd around 

 his barns and dwellings, and throng his garden and 

 jostle and override each other in their strife to be 

 uear him. Some of them are so domestic and fa- 

 miliar, and so harmless withal, that one comes to 

 regard them with positive affection. Motherwort, 

 catnip, plantain, tansy, wild-mustard, what a homely 

 human look they have ; they are an integral part 

 of every old homestead. Your smart new place 



