192 The Honey- Makers 



" A large swarm of bees having settled on a branch of 

 the poison-ash (Rhus Vernix L.) in the county of West 

 Chester in the province of New York, was put into a 

 hive and removed to the place where it was to remain. 

 Next morning the bees were found dead, swelled to double 

 their natural size, and black, except a few which appeared 

 torpid and feeble, and soon died on exposure to the air." 



And Pliny warns us, — ■ 



" The greatest care should be taken to keep the cornel 

 at a distance from the hive ; for if the bees once taste the 

 blossoms of it, they will speedily die." 



This certainly is not true of the cornel, the Cornus florida 

 or flowering dogwood of North America. This beautiful 

 little tree that whitens the forests in spring, and whose 

 flowers have an odor of honey, yields a large quantity of 

 harmless nectar to the seeking bees. 



Dead bees have been found in tulip flowers and also 

 strewing the shelves and floor of greenhouses where the 

 cineraria was in bloom. 



The honey of the yew and also of box — sometimes 

 called hemlock — has a bitter flavor which renders it un- 

 palatable to man, the bitter Corsican honey being fre- 

 quently referred to by the old writers, and thus by Ovid : 



" I think it 's Corsick honey, and the Bee 

 From the cold Hemlock flowers gathered thee." 



There are stories of poisonous honey having been found 

 in most parts of the world, though the laurels and rhodo- 

 dendrons bear the worst name in this respect north of 

 tropical climes. 



The plants that yield poisonous honey in the United 

 States are Kalmia angustifolia, the litde red-flowered sheep- 

 laurel or lambkill of our northern pastures ; Kalmia latifolia, 

 the splendid mountain laurel that makes the woods of 



