The little shrub of our marshes, appropriately named button-bush, _Cephalanthus occidentalis_, (Fig. 95), also shares the attention of the bees with the linden; while apiarists of the South find the sour-wood, or sorrel tree, _Oxydendrum arboreum_, a valuable honey tree. This belongs to the Heath family, which includes the far-famed heather bloom of England. It also includes our whortleberry, cranberry, blueberry, and one plant which has no enviable reputation, as furnishing honey, which is very poisonous, even fatal to those who eat, the mountain laurel, _Kalmia latifolia_. Yet, a near relative of the South _Andromeda nitida_, is said to furnish beautiful and wholesome honey in great quantities. The Virginia creeper also blooms in July. I wish I could say that this beautiful vine, transplendent in autumn, is a favorite with the honey-bee. Though it often, nay always, swarms with wild bees when in blossom, yet I never saw a honey-bee visit the ample bloom amidst its rich, green, vigorous foliage. Now, too, the St. John's wort, _Hypericum_, with its many species, both shrubby and herbaceous, offers bountiful contributions to the delicious stores of the honey-bee. The catnip, too, _Nepeta cataria_, and our cultivated asparagus--which if uncut in spring will bloom in June--so delectable for the table, and so elegant for trimming table meats and for banquets in autumn, come now to offer their nectarian gifts. [Illustration: Fig. 97.--_Boneset._] AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER PLANTS. The cultivated buckwheat, _Fagopyrum esculentum_, (Fig. 98), usually blooms in August, as it is sown the first of July--three pecks per acre is the amount to sow--but by sowing the first of June, it may be made to bloom the middle of July, when there is generally, in most localities, an absence of nectar-secreting flowers. The honey is inferior in color and flavor, though some people prefer this to all other honey. The silver-leaf buckwheat blooms longer, has more numerous flowers, and thus yields more grain than the common variety. Now, too, come the numerous golden-rods. The species of this genus, _Solidago_ (Fig. 99), in the Eastern United States, number nearly two-score, and occupy all kinds of soils, and are at home on upland, prairie and morass. They yield abundantly of rich, golden honey, with flavor that is unsurpassed by any other. Fortunate the apiarist who can boast of a thicket of Solidagoes in his locality. [Illustration: Fig. 98.--_Buckwheat._] [Illustration: Fig. 99.--_Golden-Rod._] [Illustration: Fig. 100.--_Aster._]