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Catnip Mother-wort And Hoarhound Are Sought After

Categories: BEE PASTURAGE.
Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained

Catnip, (_Nepeta Cataria_,) Mother-wort, (_Leonurus Cardiaca_,) and

Hoarhound, (_Marrubium Vulgare_,) about the middle of June, put forth

their flowers, rich in sweetness, and like the Raspberry, the bees

visit them at all hours and in nearly all kinds of weather. They last

from four to six weeks; the catnip I have known to last twelve in a few

instances, yielding honey during the whole time. Ox-eye daisy,

(_Leucanthem
m Vulgare_,) that beautiful and splendid flower, in

pasture and meadow, and worth but little in either, also contains some

honey. The flower is compound, and each little floret contains

particles so minute, that the task of obtaining a load is very tedious.

It is only visited when the more copious honey-yielding flowers are

scarce. Snap-dragon,(_Linaria Vulgaris_,) with its nauseous and

sickening odor, troubling the farmer with its vile presence, is made to

bestow the only good thing about it, except its beauty, upon our

insect. The flower is large and tubular, and the bee to reach the honey

must enter it; to see the bee almost disappear within the folds of the

corolla, one would think that it was about being swallowed, when the

hideous mouth was gaping to receive it; but unharmed, soon it emerges

from the yellow prison, covered with dust; this is not brushed into

pellets on its legs, like the pollen from some other flowers, but a

part adheres to its back between the wings, which it is apparently

unable to remove, as it remains there sometimes for months, making a

cluster outside the hive, appear quite speckled. Bush honey-suckle

(_Diervilla Trifida_) is another particular favorite.



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