"Here their delicious task the fervent Bees, In swarming millions, tend: around, athwart, Through the soft air the busy nations fly, Cling to the bud, and, with inserted tube. Suck its pure essence, its ethereal soul; And oft with bolder wing, they soaring dare The purple heath, or where the wild thyme grows, And yellow load them with the luscious spoil." +Thomson+ That flowers impart a portion of their flavour to honey, seems to be generally admitted, though probably not so much as some have imagined. It is not to be supposed that the bee confines itself, in this country at least, to a few particular flowers,--it ranges through a great variety; excellent honey has been produced where the bees had little access to any flowers but those of nettles and other weeds. Still however the balm of Pontus, the thyme of Hymettus, and the rosemary of Narbonne, are generally supposed, from their aromatic flowers, to give its peculiar excellence to the celebrated honey of those places. It should seem therefore that _rosemary_ might prove of importance in the neighbourhood of an apiary, by improving the quality and increasing the quantity of honey in certain seasons, viz. if the weather were very hot and dry, when it blossomed; for it never affords much honey in this country, excepting in such a season. It blossoms the earliest of aromatic herbs, and should of course be planted in a southern aspect.