The bee seeks only its own gratification in procuring honey and in regulating its household, and as, according to the old proverb, what is one man's meat is another's poison, it sometimes carries honey to its cell, which is prejudicial to us. Dr. Barton in the fifth volume, of the "American Philosophical Transactions," speaks of several plants that yield a poisonous syrup, of which the bees partake without injury, but which has been fatal to man. He has enumerated some of these plants, which ought to be destroyed wherever they are seen, namely, dwarf-laurel, great laurel, kalmia latifolia, broad-leaved moorwort, Pennsylvania mountain-laurel, wild honeysuckle (the bees, cannot get much of this,) and the stramonium or Jamestown-weed. A young bee can be readily distinguished from an old one, by the greyish coloured down that covers it, and which it loses by the wear and tear of hard labour; and if the bee be not destroyed before the season is over, this down entirely disappears, and the groundwork of the insect is seen, white or black. On a close examination, very few of these black or aged bees, will be seen at the opening of the spring, as, not having the stamina of those that are younger, they perish from inability to encounter the vicissitudes of winter.--_American Farmer's Manual_. * * * * * THE ELM. (_To the Editor of the Mirror_.) I shall be obliged to any of your correspondents who can inform me from whence came the term _witch-elm_, a name given to a species of elm tree, to distinguish it from the common elm. Some people have conjectured that it was a corruption of _white elm_, and so called from the silvery whiteness of its leaves when the sun shines upon them; but this is hardly probable, as Sir F. Bacon in his "_Silva Silvarum_, or Natural History, in Ten Centuries," speaks of it under the name of _weech-elm_. H.B.A. * * * * * CROP OF BIRDS. Besides the stomach, most birds have a membranous sac, capable of considerable distension; it is usually called a crop, (by the scientific _Ingluvies_,) into which the food first descends after being swallowed. This bag is very conspicuous in the granivorous tribes immediately after eating. Its chief use seems to be to soften the food before it is admitted into the gizzard. In _young fowls_ it becomes sometimes preternaturally distended, while the bird pines for want of nourishment. This is produced by something in the crop, such as straw, or other obstructing matter, which prevents the descent of the food into the gizzard. In such a case, a longitudinal incision may be made in the crop, its contents removed, and, the incision being sewed up, the fowl will, in general, do well.