A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tl^e Iqterests of Hor]ey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 



W. Z, HDTCHDISON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL, XI. 



FLINT, MICHIGAN. JULY 10, 1898, 



NO 7, 



THE GREAT WILLOW HERB. 



Us Home, Hal)its and Honey. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



Full many a flower is born to blnsh nnscon, 

 And wiisto its sweotiioHH on tho doHort aii . 



GKAY 



VEARS ago, 

 '^ when I lived at 



their bees. 



Rogersville, I for 

 several years made 

 .'innual trips to the 

 home of two ladies 

 living in Northern 

 Michigan, near 

 I'arwell, and 

 bought and brought 

 home a portion of 

 I well remember that among 

 other dainty viands appearing upon their 

 tea table was a comb of the whitest, sweet- 

 est honey I had ever tasted. The flavor 

 was not very pronounced, but contained 

 a suggestion of spiciness. Upon inquiry 

 I was told that this honey was from the 

 great willow herb. It is known under 

 various names such as fire-weed, Indian 

 pink, rose bay, etc. Its scientific name 

 is au}rustifoliui)i cpilobiuni. Later, when 

 collecting samples of different kinds of 



honey to exhibit at fairs, I sent for a bot- 

 tle of this honey. When it came and I 

 held it up to the light I couhl compare it 

 with nothing else that a bottle of spring 

 water, it was so clear. It certainly has no 

 more color than so much water. 



This plant grows from two to six feet 

 in height, and as a rule, inclines to a sin- 

 gle stalk. The blossoms are a dark pink 

 and arranged in a cluster around the cen- 

 tral stalk. In fact they remind me of 

 the phlox of the flower garden. One 

 peculiarity of the bloom is that it con- 

 tinues from July until frost. So long as 

 it is in bloom there seems to be a cluster 

 of buds pushing themselves up from the 

 center of the bloom. As these buds un- 

 fold, others take their place, and so the 

 stalk pushes up and up, always tipped 

 with a sprig of buds, below which is a 

 cluster of bloom that in time gives way 

 to seed-pods. Thus we have, on the same 

 stalk, buds, blossoms and seed pods, and, 

 in many instances, the oldest pods have 

 burst and winds are scattering the downy 

 seeds far and near. I think such seeds 

 might be carried in great numbers — well, 

 possibly, hundreds of miles. Perhaps 

 this explains why it springs up, apparent- 

 ly in a spontaneous manner, after the 

 ground has been birmed over by fires; 

 whereas the fire simply bums the turf 



