Where hast thou been since the bright morn first saw thee on thy way
'Mong scented brier and glittering heath that woo'd thy lingering stay?
Hast thou no voice to tell us of the far off verdant scenes,
Of the rich limes thou lov'st so well and of the fresh'ning steams.
Away! away! once more thou'rt up and ev'r the leaf be still'd.
To its soft rest from the trembling that thy light form has thrill'd,
Thou'lt be again among thy loves, the fragrant, the bright,
All jealous of their hidden sweets, in murmuring delight.
I have always found the advantage of planting, in the vicinity of my hives, a large quantity of the common kinds of crocus, single blue hipatica, heleborus niger, and tussilago petasites, all of which flower very early and are rich in honey and farina: salvia nemorosa, (of Dr. Smith) which flowers very early in June and lasts all the summer, is in an extraordinary manner sought after by the Bees, and when room is not an object, twenty or thirty square yards of it may be grown with advantage, origanum humile, origanum rubescens, (of Haworth) and mignonette may also be grown; cultivation beyond this, exclusively for Bees, I believe answers very little purpose.
Doctor Bevan says: "To those who, residing in towns, may consider it indispensable to the success of an Apiary, that it should be in the immediate vicinity of good pasturage, and be thereby deterred from benefiting and amusing themselves by keeping Bees; it may be satisfactory to learn that the Apiary of the celebrated Bonner was situated in a garret, in the centre of Glasgow, where it flourished for several years, and furnished him with the means of making many interesting and valuable observations which he gave to the world about thirty years ago."