The Sources of Nectar and Pollen 
369 
that the fruit was first damaged by some bird, by some other 
insect (e.g. hornet), by a bruise or by some form of decay 
and he may further be certain that the bees are sucking the 
juices of only damaged, unmarketable fruit. It may also 
be added that fruit juices are most undesirable stores for 
bees and, if used exclusively in winter, the colony will prob¬ 
ably die. The beekeeper is therefore often being injured as 
much as the fruit-grower when the bees suck overripe or 
injured fruits. 
Beekeepers naturally appear biased in seeking to prove 
the bee a harmless and solely beneficial insect. They even 
minimize the annoyance of the stings in their loyalty to the 
bee. In pointing out the benefits of bees and denying in¬ 
juries so often laid at their door, the present writer may also 
be accused of this bias. The investigations that have been 
made, however, uniformly support the contentions of the 
bee enthusiasts and the supposedly harmed fruit-grower 
should be led to suspect that his judgment is in error. The 
ranks of the bee advocates arc year by year being materially 
augmented by fruit-growers who have become convinced of 
the correctness of the attitude that the beekeeper maintains 
toward his bees. 
Supposedly poisonous honeys. 
Frequent mention is made in the literature on bees of 
supposedly poisonous honeys. It is of course true that the 
juices of many plants are poisonous to man and this may be 
the foundation for the belief that nectar of such species also 
contains the poisonous principles. Among the plants some¬ 
times reported to produce poisonous nectar from which 
poisonous honeys are made by the bees, are mountain laurel 
(Kalmia latifolia), tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum), yellow 
jessamine ( Gelsemium sempervirens) , sweet pepper bush 
(Clethra alnifolia ) and rhododendrons (one species of which 
is supposed to be the source of honey reported by Xenophon 
as having poisoned his soldiers). It wovdd be unsafe to deny 
that the nectar of any plant produces a poisonous honey, but 
2 B 
