458 
HOLLY 
inch nor more than one-third. This alone 
was a great discovery, and placed Lang- 
stroth far above the mere inventor. See 
Bee-space and Frames; also A B C of 
Beekeeping. 
From his writings it is evident that 
Langstroth knew nothing about what others 
Debeauvoy’s hive, 1845; invented in France before 
Langstroth’s hive appeared. 
had done before him in this line; and it is 
apparent that his invention was the result 
of a profound study of the bee and its 
habits. To some extent he was misled by 
others into thinking that the principle of 
the Langstroth hive had been discovered by 
Dr. Dzierzon independently, whereas it is 
now proven that the German beekeeper had 
no claim to the invention of the hanging 
movable comb, to say nothing of the bee- 
space and the movable roof, which are es¬ 
sential features of the hive. 
Langstroth’s invention, accompanied by 
an excellent treatise* on the art of keeping 
bees, created a revolution in beekeeping in 
a short time, linking his name with that 
of Huber as the two founders of modern 
apiculture. 
HIVES, MANIPULATING.— See Man¬ 
ipulation of Colonies. 
HIVE-STANDS.— See Apiary. 
HOLLY (Ilex opaca ).—American holly. 
White holly. A small evergreen tree, 20 to 
50 feet tall, with a trunk sometimes six 
feet in circumference. Bark smooth and 
grayish white, twigs light brown. The 
leaves are elliptical, leathery, spiny-toothed, 
*A reprint of the original work has been pub¬ 
lished by The A. I. Root Company; price $1.50. 
dark green, shining above and dull be¬ 
neath, with bright red berries in the axils. 
As in the common gallberry the flowers are 
small, white, and a part are pistillate and 
a part staminate, the staminate being clus¬ 
tered and the pistillate solitary. Only one 
kind of flower occurs usually on an indi¬ 
vidual tree. Holly extends thruout the 
southern States from Florida to Texas, and 
in the Mississippi Valley northward to Mis¬ 
souri, and along the coast to Massachu¬ 
setts, but is not abundant north of Vir¬ 
ginia. 
American holly is widely distributed in 
Georgia, but is seldom very common in 
any one locality. The flowers expand in 
April, and, altho the honey is never ob¬ 
tained pure, it is undoubtedly excellent. In 
Florida it is confined to the northern part 
of the State, where it blooms a little ear¬ 
lier than in Georgia. The honey is always 
mixed with that from other early spring 
flowers; for example, on the eastern coast 
it forms a fine blend with the honey of the 
saw palmetto. In South Carolina holly is 
also considered a valuable honey-producer, 
and the odor of the flowers is very notice¬ 
able in the apiary when the trees are in 
bloom. In Massachusetts the holly does 
not flower until June. There is in this 
State a variety with yellow fruit. 
But locally thruout western Mississippi 
and southern Arkansas holly is an impor¬ 
tant honey plant, and the source of a large 
amount of surplus. At Graysport, Gre¬ 
nada County, Mississippi, it is the only 
honey plant yielding a surplus. The hon¬ 
ey is almost white or a very light amber 
color, heavy, excellent in flavor, and when 
pure will not candy for years. “I would go 
out of business,” writes a beekeeper from 
this town, “were it not for holly. It is al¬ 
ways reliable except when it rains con¬ 
stantly dui’ing the blooming period. I have 
had strong colonies store 17 pounds per 
day from holly.” A large quantity of holly 
honey is also secured in the Yazoo Delta. 
HONEY. —Many readers of a work of 
this kind, no doubt, have a good idea of 
the physical properties of a honey, and 
may be able from the taste to determine 
to some extent from what special plant 
any given honey was mainly produced. It 
may be possible, perhaps, that they have an 
