PASTURAGE. 59 



honey in a fortnight, in consequence of being 

 placed near a large field of buckwheat. Bees 

 indeed like to have every thing upon a large scale ; 

 whole fields of clover, beans, the brassica tribe 

 and buckwheat, as has been just observed, attract- 

 ing them much more strongly than scattered 

 plants, though affording finer honey, such as 

 creeping lemon thyme, mignonette, &c. 



Some flowers they pass by, though yielding a 

 considerable quantity of honey : those of the honey- 

 suckle for instance, though much frequented by 

 the humble-bee, are never visited by the hive-bee, 

 the superior length of the proboscis of the former 

 enabling it to collect what is quite out of the reach 

 of the latter. Every flower of the trumpet honey- 

 suckle (Lonicera sempervirens), if separated from 

 the germen, after it is open, will yield two or 

 three drops of pure nectar. 



In the Transactions of the Society of Arts for 

 1789, Mr. John. Lane speaks of the fondness of 

 bees for leek blossoms, and says that he raised 

 leeks extensively for their use. 



" Your bees will rejoice," says Mr. Isaac, " when 

 they see the neighbourhood variegated by the 

 blossoms of sunflowers, hollyhocks and Spanish 

 broom, and even the dandelion, which embellishes 

 the garden of the sluggard." Dr. Evans observed 

 that bees not only collect farina from the numerous 

 asemblage of anthers in the flower of the holly- 



