1 1 8 HONEY,. 
honey in vegetables, and consequently the operations 
of the bees. The quality of the saccharine fluid is 
influenced by various causes. Something depends 
on the particular period of the season in which it is 
collected. In Scotland, the best honey is gathered 
in the months of June and July, when the white 
clover ( Trifolium repens , ) is in bloom; and what 
is stored in spring, or rather in April and May, is 
purer and better flavoured than what is obtained in 
autumn, unless the bees have been during the latter 
season within reach of heath, the honey from which 
is of a rich wild flavour, but of a darker colour. The 
quality of honey is, of course, much influenced by 
the nature of the plants most frequented by the bees. 
The famed honey of Hymettus derives its excellence, 
it is said, from the wild thyme growing so luxuriant- 
ly on the celebrated mountain from which it derives 
its name; that of Narbonne, from the wild rosemary 
( Rosmarinus officinalis.) The white Dutch clover, 
and the heath have been already noticed as furnish- 
ing honey of a superior kind ; and there is a district 
in Galloway, North Britain, where perhaps the best 
honey in the kingdom is produced, owing, it is sup- 
posed, to the great abundance of wild thyme ( Thymus 
serpyllum,') with which the country abounds. 
Instances of honey of a deleterious nature being 
sometimes met with, have been already noticed, 
(p. 4.9.) We have seen it remarked, in Bee-publi- 
cations, that the finest honey is got from young 
swarms ; the fact is so, generally speaking, but not, 
as we might naturally be led to infer from the asser- 
