The American Apiculturist 



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ENTERED AT THE POST-OFFICE, SALEM, AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



Published Monthly. S. M. Locke, Publisher & Prop'r. 



VOL. III. 



SALEM, MASS., MARCH, il 



No. 3. 



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HYBRID HONEY SAGES OF 

 CALIFORNIA. 



By W. A. Pryal. 



A writer in the Kansas Beekeep- 

 er claims that the plant figured and 

 described in several magazines and 

 papers, including some of the bee 

 journals, as the "white sage" is 

 not the white sage, at all ; that in- 

 stead it is a hybrid, being a cross 

 between the black sage and the 

 white sage. The former is the chief 

 honey sage of California, comes into 

 bloom long before the white, and 

 furnishes a good share of the honey 

 crop before the bees work on the 

 latter kind. Comb made of the 

 honey from it is perfectly white 

 and the honey is as clear as it is 

 possible for honey to be. 



The leaves of the black variety 

 are of a dark green hue and are 

 rather narrow when compared with 

 the white. On account of the dark 



color of the leaves it is called the 

 "black sage." It is also called 

 "ball" or "button" sage for the 

 reason that its flowers "ball" round 

 the stalk. 



The title "the white sage of Cal- 

 ifornia" is known the world around 

 and has so impressed itself because 

 of the famous honey gathered there- 

 from and which honey takes its 

 name as is apparent from the name 



White Sage. 

 of the plant. Considerable of the 

 honey thus designated is really 

 not white sage honey but, in a good 

 measure, black sage honey. Still, 

 the distinction does not matter 

 much to the consumer, both are 

 excellent and are "California sage 

 honey." 



The flowers of the white sage 

 (49) 



