THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
29 
During the year considerable attention has 
been paid to the introduction of new races of 
bees ; from Cyprus, Carniola, the Holy Land, 
South Africa, America, Ac., there have been 
considerably importations. 
These attempts to introduce bees of superior 
powers, have found much encouragement 
amongst our leading beemasters, but the 
English black bee still continues to hold its 
place in the estimation of the great body of 
beekeepers. 
The imports of honey for the year are not 
yet complete ; we hope, however, in the course 
of the present month to have full statistics 
before us, when we propose to take the oppor- 
tunity of dealing with both the honey imports 
for ISM,, and the wax imports and exports for 
1S85. 
Notwithstanding the grand display of honey 
at the South Kensington Exhibition, the 
season of 1880 cannot be pronounced to have 
been a prosperous one. In some localities it 
has beeu favorable, but the yield in the United 
Kingdom generally has not reached the 
average of previous honey years. 
Hope, however, ever dwells in the hearts of 
beekeepers, and we trust, with enlarged ex- 
perience, aud with improved appliances, their 
liest and brightest hopes for 1887 may be fully 
ealised. G. H. 
FLOWERS FOR BEES. 
From British Bee Journal, Jan. 1887. 
We have received a beautifully illustrated 
annual from Messrs. Webb A Sons, which 
they style Webb's Spring Catalogue of 
Vegetable and Flower Seeds, and in which 
they give a short but useful essay on “ Flowers 
for Bees.'' We quote the following as of con- 
siderable importance and interest: — '‘Wherever 
fruit trees are grown in quantity, either out 
of doors or under glass, no better assistants in 
ensuring fertilisation can be obtained than 
the bees, and some of the most successful 
market fruit growers attribute the regularity 
of their crops to the industrious aid of these 
insects. Most of our hardy fruit trees, 
however, flower in early spring, and there is a 
long period during which the bees have to 
seek their honey and pollen supplies in other 
directions. To assist in this we have prepared 
tho following list of plants that are most 
serviceable for the purpose, and which are 
most frequented by the bees. The object is to 
obtain as long a succession of bloom as 
possible, and this can be effected with most 
annuals, or biennials, by sowing batches of 
seed at different times, so that plants are had 
in all stages. Have a good quantity of 
whatever plants are employed, as patches are 
not of much use, and will be scarcely sufficient 
to keep the bees at home, and it should be 
remembered that if this can be accomplished 
much time will be saved in the filling of supers, 
a quick return in honey amply compensating 
for expenditure in the purchase of seeds. 
Four plants that should be grown extensively 
are Limnanthes Douglasi, mignonette, borage, 
and the corn-flower (Centaurea cyanu3). As 
much ground as possible should be devoted to 
these. Sweet scabious is a plant for summer 
flowering, and does particularly well on banks 
or mounds. Sweet alyssum and the white 
arabis also merit a portion of the ground, and 
will repay for the space occupied. Wall- 
flowers are almost indispensable in early spring, 
and cannot be too freely employed. The 
phacelia is a capital plant for a later period, a3 
also are candytuft, stocks, and sweet peas. 
Suitable additions to this list will be found in 
the following annuals: — Ambrosia Mexicana, 
calliopsis ticolor, cerinthe major,Clarkia pulch- 
ella, colinsia bicolor, collomia coccinea, gillia 
tricolor, leteosiphon densiflorous, lupins, 
nasturtium, phlox Drummondi, and whitlavia 
grandiflora. Shrubs like the berberis, lilac, 
and ribes, are useful, and among trees the 
lime and sycamore are perhaps the best. All 
the sunflower tribes are favorites with the bees, 
also thyme, and most herbs may be added 
with advantage.” It is a pleasing circumstance 
that one of our largest and most successful 
firms of seed-growers acknowledges the grow- 
ing importance of apiculture, as Messrs. Webb 
do by stating that : — “ The number of amateur 
aparians has increased greatly in the past few 
years, for apart from the bountiful stores of 
honey so easily obtained under the modern sys- 
tem of management, it is now generally recog- 
nised that bees perform a most important work 
in the garden. We may here mention that 
Mr. Cowan informs us that he has grown 
Echinops sphereocphalus for eight or ten 
years, and classes it high as a bee plant.” 
Many of our readers, no doubt, are well 
acquainted with Echinops Ritro, an orna- 
mental perennial border plant, which bears 
a blue flower, and of which bees are very fond 
IlA r BRIDS r. PUKE ITALIANS. 
American Apiculturist, March 1887. 
Friend A. L. Taylor, of Lapeer, Mich., has an 
article in the December number of the A pi 
“ Italians v. Hybrids,” in which he points out 
the superiority of “Hybrids” over “ Italian” 
bees. Well, first, here is where his experience 
and mine widely differ. The very point that 
he makes for his German hybrid bees against 
the Italians are those most applicable to the 
pure Italians for this locality. I notice that 
most all our northern beekeepers, in recording 
their experience in the trial of this and that, 
is exactly the oppositeof the same experiment 
tried here in thesouth, and I have often noticed 
this from our best writers, those best posted in 
apicultural knowledge and practical apiarists. 
Consequently when I see anything so very 
different in its nature from the same practical 
results as obtained here at the south, 1 can 
