289 AUSTRALASIAN 
NEW SOUTH WALES. 
Mr. Thomas E. Willis, to whose kindness I am indebted for 
much information with reference to bee culture in New South 
Wales, reports on the bee forage of that colony as follows :— 
‘“‘The honey season on the coast takes place in spring, whilst inland 
the summer is the best season; this is owing in a great measure to 
the vast forests of gum trees being then in full bloom, whilst on the 
coast there is a profusion of winter and spring flowers and golden 
wittles, the latter being a favourite with the bees. The principal 
bush trees about Sydney are, spotted gum,* black butt,t iron bark,t 
woolly butt, and honeysuckle: from all these the bees derive susten- 
ance. I have also noticed them on the large flowers of the dogwood, 
a kind of dwarf gum. In Baron Miiller’s Botanic Teachings, he 
mentions the honey eucalyptus (2. mellicdora) as a favourite with bees, 
as its blossom: exude much nectar, and also the Cape honeysuckle, or 
Protea mellifera. The Wigandea caracasana, which keeps in flower 
from August till November, is an espécial favourite with the bees ; it 
has large leaves, about eighteen inches by twelve, and bears numerous 
spikes of blue flowers ; it is an ornamental shrub, and thrives well in 
gardens about Sydney. Itis a native of America, tropical and sub- 
tropical.” 
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
With reference to the district immediately around Adelaide, 
Mr. A. E. Bonney informs me that the chief sources of the 
honey crop are the blossoms of the Eucalypti :— 
“*These trees, of which there is a great variety, flower on the plains 
from December to the end of March, and on the hills from October to 
March. The quality of the honey is very fine. Perhaps the most 
valuable is H. rostrata (red gum), which produces a copious flow of 
honey during January and February. In spring the dandelions, or 
Cape marigold, yield a large harvest, but the honey is of poor quality. 
In favoured localities, such as Mount Barker, the honey season lasts 
all the year round ; but as arule, from January Ist to February 28th 
may be called the honey season. At Mount Barker, Mr. Justice Bou- 
cant has been getting surplus honey during the past eighteen months; 
also one of my colonies has been filling section boxes for eleven months, 
only stopping for four weeks whilst I was treating them for foul-brood.” 
Acacias, or wattles, are also plentiful here as elsewhere in 
Australia. The black wattle (A. deewrrens) and the coast wattle 
are described as furnishing very good bee forage on the south- 
east coast. Mr. Bonney, in writing to the New Zealand and 
“ EB. goniocalyx. + HE. pilularis, { E. leucoxylon. 
