July, Mi.] 



Live Stock. 



not for their irregularity in blossoming 

 eucalypts would provide an almost 

 unequalled succession of honey-flow 

 throughout the year. However, the 

 varieties do not grow so near as to 

 provide this continuity in one locality, 

 although so many are the different 

 kinds that hardly any wooded district 

 could be without something approaching 

 it. The yield of honey from most 

 varieties is enormous. A glorious thing 

 it is to stand beneath a towering gum- 

 tree almost snow-white with its pro- 

 fusion of blossom, its vast top ' the 

 summer home of murmuring wings.' At 

 such times a bee-master is as glad and 

 as busy as his bees. The quantity of 

 nectar compensates our bee-keepers to 

 some extent for the irregularity of 

 blossoming. But it is not safe for them 

 to depend upon eucalypts alone ; and 

 there are other trees and shrubs which 

 give an equally good and, in some cases, 

 a better quality of honey. They belong 

 for the most part, like the eucalypts, to 

 the myrtaceous order. And I cannot 

 help regretting that in a late enumer- 

 ation of the products of this order, made, 

 as published, by a distinguished botanist 

 of this city, mention was omitted of a 

 product so valuable and distinctive as 

 its yield of honey. 



'•Among the most numerous of the 

 Myrtacece are the ' tea-trees, all of which 

 are rich in honey— the finest quality 

 being obtained from those that beautify 

 the river beds and watercourses, 

 the red bottle-brush or river myrtle 

 (Callistemon lanceolatus), and others. 

 The paper-barked tea- trees (Melaleuca 

 leucadendron et var,) and other swamp 

 varieties have abundance of honey, but 

 of a rank, objectionable flavour and 

 smell, and dark in colour. All the 

 Angophorce (apple-trees and sugar gums) 

 are good honey yielders — the so-called 

 ' sugary gum' (Angophora lanceolata) 

 having a peculiarly luscious, thick, 

 though dark honey. The Tristanice are 

 also most valuable honey producers, 

 especially the ' swamp mahogany ' 

 (Tristania suavolens), which has a deli- 

 cate honey of delicious peachy flavour 

 and aroma, perhaps the finest to be 

 found in the colony. The plants men- 

 tioned all flower annually, mostly in the 

 spring and early summer, and prefer 

 moisture to drought, with the exception 

 of the Angophorce, which share the 

 irregularity of the eucalypts to which 

 they are most nearly allied. There are, 

 besides, great numbers of flowering 

 shrubs and trees in scrubs, which also 

 blossom annually, and yield honey of 

 very fine flavours and colours. So 

 reliable are scrub flowers for a yearly 



yield that no bee-keeper is wise to select 

 a locality for his apiary where his bees 

 cannot easily reach them. The marshes 

 and swamps on the coast are covered 

 with honey-plants, including a number 

 of varieties of tea-trees and grass-trees, 

 and the mangrove. But the honey 

 gathered from such localities near the 

 sea is very strong, salty, and dark, audi 

 am particular in mentioning these facts, 

 because eucalyptus honey is often 

 credited with flavours derived from in- 

 ferior sources. The results of a harvest, 

 and the market value of a season's take, 

 will be much modified by the presence 

 of honeys other than from eucalypts. 



" Among the eucalypts themselves the 

 quality and quantity vary very much 

 vith the tree. The product of the blue 

 gum (teretirornis) has a delightful musky 

 perfume, very distinguishable among 

 the hives on a warm spring evening, and 

 a pale amber colour ; but as it blossoms 

 in late winter or early spring, the bees 

 can seldom take full advantage of it for 

 storing. In my experience the brightest 

 and finest eucalyptus honey of Southern 

 Queensland comes from the ironbarks, 

 particularly the grey ironbark (sidero- 

 phloia), and the broad-leaved or silver- 

 leaved ironbark (melano-phloia), which 

 is a stunted, crooked tree, and therefore 

 seldom cut for timber. The bees seem 

 to prefer the latter ; I have seen them 

 leave the grey ironbark almost untouch- 

 ed when both were in full blossom at 

 the same time. The honey of the black- 

 butt (Eu. pilularis) has the most un- 

 usual characteristic of not candying, 

 even if kept for several years, probably 

 on account of its extreme density, which 

 gives it a jelly-like consistence and 

 makes it difficult to be extracted from 

 the combs. 



" In none of the honeys of the euca- 

 lypts, so far as 1 have tested them, is 

 there the slightest suggestion of the 

 flavour of the oil secreted by the leaves. 

 It is unlikely that in any of the species 

 the oil is secreted with the honey, so 

 that the reputed excellence of this kind 

 of honey for medicinal purposes is prob- 

 ably no greater than that of any other 

 honey, and rests on no other basis than 

 the general emollient and nourishing 

 properties of the article from whatever 

 source. The much-talked-of and much 

 deprecated 'eucalyptus flavour' seems 

 to have originated in one of those 

 commercial tricks which do so much 

 damage to the interests of honest 

 traders and producers. It will be re- 

 membered that a certain savant of a 

 chemist, travelling in Tasmauia some 

 years ago, brought before the French 

 public the ' extraordinary virtues ' of 



