Each kind of honey has its distinctive flavor and aroma, derived, as already indicated, mainly from the particular blossoms by which it was secreted, but modified and softened by the manipulation given it in the hives. When the secretion is abundant in a flower having a short or open corolla, hence one from which the bees find it easy to obtain the honey, they will confine their visits to that kind if the latter is present in sufficient numbers. Thus it is that linden, white clover, buckwheat, white sage, mesquite, sourwood, aster, tulip tree, mangrove, orange, and other kinds of honey may be harvested separately, and each be readily recognizable by its color, flavor, consistency, and aroma. When, however, no great honey yielder is present in large quantity and the source is miscellaneous, all manner of combinations of qualities may exist, introducing great and often agreeable variety. Thus the medicinal qualities and the food value of different kinds of honey differ as greatly as do their prices on the market. PROPOLIS. This substance, commonly known as "bee glue," is obtained by the bees from the buds and crevices of trees, and is carried to the hives in the corbicula or basket-like cavities on the outside of the tibial joints of the workers' hind legs, the same as they carry pollen. The workers with their mandibles scrape together and bite off the particles of propolis, and with the front and middle legs pass them back to the baskets, where the middle legs and feet are used to tamp them down. The pellets can be readily distinguished from those of pollen, the latter being dull and granular in appearance, while the freshly gathered propolis is compact and shiny. This resinous material, which becomes hard soon after it is gathered, is at first quite sticky, and the bee bringing it requires aid in unloading. Another worker takes hold of the mass with its jaws, and by united exertion they get it out of the pocket, though often by piecemeal and in long threads. It is not stored in cells, but is used at once to stop up crevices in the hives and to varnish the whole interior surface, as well as to glue movable portions fast, also in strengthening the combs at their attachments, and if the latter are designed exclusively for honey, and especially if not filled at once, the edges of their completed cells receive a thin coating of propolis, which adds considerably to their strength. The bees often make the flight hole smaller by filling a part of it with masses of propolis, sometimes mixed with old wax. Carniolans gather the least and Tunisians the most propolis of any of the different races. On this account the former are better suited than the latter to the production of fancy white comb honey. BEE POISON AND THE STING.