fO BEES. 



ite. It lasts nearly the whole season and yields 

 richly. It could no doubt be profitably cultivated 

 in some localities, and catnip honey would be a 

 novelty in the market. It would probably partake 

 of the aromatic properties of the plant from which it 

 was derived. 



Among your stores of honey gathered before mid- 

 summer, you may chance upon a card, or mayhap 

 only a square inch or two of comb, in which the liquid 

 is as transparent as water, of a delicious quality, with 

 a slight flavor of mint. This is the product of the 

 linden or basswood, of all the trees in our forest the 

 one most beloved by the bees. Melissa, the goddess 

 of honey, has placed her seal upon this tree. The 

 wild swarms in the woods frequently reap a choice 

 harvest from it. I have seen a mountain side thickly 

 studded with it, its straight, tall, smooth, light-gray 

 shaft carrying its deep-green crown far aloft, like the 

 tulip-tree or the maple. 



In some of the Northwestern States there are large 

 forests of it, and the amount of honey reported stored 

 by strong swarms in this section during the time the 

 tree is in bloom is quite incredible. As a shade and 

 ornamental tree the linden is fully equal to the maple, 

 and if it were as extensively planted and cared for, our 

 supplies of virgin honey would be greatly increased. 

 The famous honey of Lithuania in Russia is the pro- 

 duct of the linden. 



It is a homely old stanza current among bee folk 

 that — 



" A swarm of bees in May 

 Is worth a load of hay : 

 A swarm of bees in June 

 Is worth a silver spoon ; 

 But a swarm in July 

 Is not worth a fly." 



