252 MONEY IN BEES IN AXJSTRALASIA 



Flooded Gums of Western Australia, (E. rudis and 

 E. decipiens). At Mount Barker in Western Australia 

 these Eucalypts bloom every second year from beginning 

 of August to middle of November. The amber-coloured 

 honey and creamy pollen is greatly valued for brood- 

 rearing, coming as it does so early in spring. 



Grey Box, {E. hemipMoia) . The name really means 

 ' ' half -barked ' ' but the tree is not generally so. A better 

 name should surely be found. A good yielder, but the 

 honey has a distinctive flavour that is not quite popular. 

 However, where blending is resorted to the flavour is 

 indistinguishable. This honey has a flavour sometimes 

 described as "tallowy" and is responsible for a certain 

 person's advice to Australasian apiarists "not to keep 

 bees where they could gain access to sheep skins hung 

 out to dry." One would imagine the bee to be a car- 

 nivorous animal after reading such nonsense. The honey 

 from Grey box is fairly light and of very thick body. Up 

 to 100 lbs. per hive has been recorded from this source. 

 Guilfoyle calls this species "Forest" Box and names its 

 habitat as Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and 

 South Australia. 



Grey Gum, {E. saligna), Grey Gum of South Queens- 

 land [E. punctata) Grey Gum of New South Wales. Both 

 these Eucalypts are splendid honey-yielders. Pollen 

 fairly abundant and cream in colour. 



Ironbark (Eed) {E. sideroxylon) . This is a very con- 

 spicuous tree with dark deep-fissured bark extremely 

 hard and rough. The flowers vary in colour from cream 

 to pink. The wood is red-coloured, hard and dense. It 

 is a late-blooming variety and some years, though honey 

 is abundant in the nectaries, the bees make no attempt 

 to gather it. The reason for this neglect is rather 

 obscure. Some apiarists associate bad wintering of bees 

 with the advent of Ironbark bloom. The honey is pale 

 in colour but not so dense as that from Eed gum, probably 

 owing to the time of flowering, late autumn to early 



