CHAP. VIII.
¶ What flowers they be which Bees serue themselues most withall for their worke. [unspec D]
AS for wax, Bees gather and make it of the floures of all trees, herbs, and plants, sauing the docke and * 1.1 Goose-foot, which are two kinds of herbs. Some except also a kind of Broom called Spart, but vntruly: for in Spaine (where there be many places full of that shrub) the honie carrieth the strength thereof in the taste. I am besides of opinion, that they be deceiued who thinke that bees gather not of Oliue trees. For we see it ordinary, that there be more casts and swarmes of Bees where Oliues grow in greater abundance. These pretty creatures hurt no fruit whatsoeuer. They will not settle vpon a floure that is faded, and much lesse of any dead carkasse. They vse not to go from their hiue about their busines aboue 60 paces: & if it chance, that within the precinct of these limits they finde not floures sufficient: out goe their spies, whom they send forth to discouer forage farther off. If in this expedition, before they come [unspec E] home againe, they be ouertaken by the night, they couch vpon their backes for feare lest their wings should be ouercharged with the euening dew, and so they watch all night vntill the morning.