188 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



and I could not enjoy the pleasure of 

 seeing the queen . Since I came back 

 the queens have mated, and I receiv- 

 ee one here which is developing nicely, 

 with very nervous bees. Mr. D. has 

 sold all his bees to Mr. L. who started 

 with them to Egypt, and he himself 

 will leave the island, thus leaving no- 

 body to care for Cyprian queens or 

 bar-frame hives. He had a beautiful 

 arrangements for silk worm 

 raising. The moths were actively en- 

 gaged laying eggs, while he had a 

 nice white funnel through which the 

 eggs were dropping into little sacks. 

 Mr. D. pretends to have a method of 

 raising healthy insects, peculiar to 

 himself, and tries to beat the French 

 market. He will not divulge his 

 secret but keeps it to himself. He 

 has dropped bee-keeping altogether, 

 as he does not believe in returns from 

 this business. It certainly is a poor 

 place for honey; and as he could not 

 depend upon queen sales, from differ- 

 ent causes, he has made up his mind 

 to give up bees which gave no honey, 

 aud the island altogether, as the 

 climate has ruined his health and the 

 islanders his feelings. He had given 

 a man a few hives a year ago; and 

 when he invited me to take a look at 

 them, the superstitious Cypriote 

 objected, fearing the effect of the evil 

 eye. After demonstrations, dicker- 

 ings, and threatenings the man at 

 leugth gave way, and we proceeded 

 to the clay-cylinder apiary. 



The way led us through badly pav- 

 ed and narrow streets until at length 

 we arrived at the house, which was in 

 a miserable condition. Through a low 

 gateway he led us to his garden where 

 aprofusion of lemon trees, orange trees, 

 pomegranates, and others were planted 

 in a disorderly wav. In the midst of 

 the garden he had arranged his hives 

 in a pyramidal shape above" each oth- 

 er, with stone slabs closing up both 

 ends of the two or three foot cylinders. 

 A big entrance- hole, (big enough to 

 let the death-head moths and hornets 

 fall upon unprotected hives) was in the 

 lower part of the slab. The bees were 



working actively on cucumber, veget- 

 able marrow, and other flowers of the 

 cucarbitacae , especially the ''squirting 

 cucumber" (Ecballium elaterium,) 

 which yields bitter honey. This plant 

 grows wild all over the East, hut 

 seems to prefer ruined places. Ashes 

 and crumbled building material seems 

 to be just the right thing to make 

 them thrive. The plant very much 

 resembles the cucumber at a distance, 

 with its small yellow flowers ; but 

 coming nearer you find the leaves 

 prickly, much rougher than garden 

 cucumbers, and the fruit a tiny cucum- 

 ber growing at an angle of 45 degrees 

 on an upright stalk. When we boys 

 used to run about the ruins of Zion 

 and Jerusalem we used to have great 

 fun touching one of the ripe fruits, 

 and off they go on the next person, 

 sending out the juice and seeds right 

 into the face or some part near the 

 direction the fruit points. This is one 

 of Nature's curious ways of propagat- 

 ing its kind by sending off the seeds 

 to a great distance. The cactus was 

 also yielding some honey ; but as too 

 few hedges grow around Larnaca. and 

 the cactus yields honey very sparingly, 

 this source is equally a poor one. 

 Thistles also, of the carduus tribe, 

 grow round the town : and the best 

 of all honey-plants for summer was 

 just beginning to come into bloom — 

 the thyme — of which we met four 

 donkey loads being brought to town 

 from the mountaius, for the oven. I 

 felt very fidgety about it, although 

 not living in the place ; still, in Pales- 

 tine they are doing the same thing, 

 and robbing bees of their pasturage 

 in the near future. Plenty of carob- 

 trees grow all over Cyprus, and these 

 carobs firm an important article of 

 export, while the flowers yield honey 

 of a dark brown color, In places where 

 cotton and hemp are cultivated, the 

 bees also get a chance to gather some 

 surplus ; but cultivation or agriculture 

 is carried on in the most primitive 

 way. 



But the beauty and fruitfulness of 

 this island have gone, partly by the 



