180 WILD FLOWERS. 



sants carry their bee-hives to the moor-lands for 

 an autumn pasture; just as in Greece and Egypt 

 they are placed in boats and taken up the rivers by 

 night, to give them fresh feeding -grounds ; the 

 boat being moored by day, to afford the bees an 

 opportunity of seeking the flowers on the banks. 

 There is something very poetical in the idea of 

 tribute being thus levied on the very flowers of 

 the field ; and though I do not know that any 

 poet has actually made use of it, very many have 

 recorded how well the bee loves the heather, 



" The tiny heath-flowers now begin to blow ; 

 The russet moor assumes a richer glow ; 

 The powdery bells, that glance in purple bloom, 

 Fling from their scented cups a sweet perfume. 

 While from their cells, still moist with morning dew, 

 The wandering wild bee sips the honied glue ;" 



says Leyden ; whom Scott, entitles the possessor 01 



" Many-languaged lore ;" 

 and another takes up the burden thus : 



* * * "The Erica here, 

 That o'er the Caledonian hills sublime 

 Spreads its dark mantle, where the bees delight 

 To seek their purest honey." 



The Berwickshire naturalist, so often quoted, re- 

 marks that the heather (and I suspect very many 

 other plants) appears to be affected in the quantity 

 of its saccharine secretions by the geological nature 

 of the soil on which it grows ; observing, that in the 

 neighbourhood of Wooler, in Berwickshire, there is 



