ive for table use. It is remarkable for the quickness with which it granulates, often becoming solid before the cells have been sealed. It is called turpentine-weed and camphor-weed because of the strong scent of the foliage. The flowers are blue, and the stamens are spirally coiled in the bud, whence the name blue curls. It is common on the foothills of the Coast Range and Sierra Nevada and in dry fields and plains, to which it gives a soft purplish tinge. Beginning with September it blooms throughout the fall, and adds not a little to the winter stores. Abundant in Fresno and Ventura counties, and in the Sacramento Valley, California.

BLUE GUM. — See Eucalyptus.

BLUE THISTLE (Eryngium articulatum). — Honey mild-flavored, but dark-colored. Along the lower Sacramento River and in Sacramento County, California, bees store many pounds of honey from blue thistle from August to September. A perennial strong-smelling herb, 2 to 3 feet tall, with small bluish flowers in umbels, belonging to the carrot family, or Umbelliferae.

BLUE THISTLE. — See Blue-weed.

BLUE VINE (Gonolobus laevis). - Also called sand-vine; angle-pod from the angled fruit; blue vine from the bluish color of the flower; dry-weather vine, since it secretes nectar most freely in dry weather, and shoestring vine. A twining herbaceous vine with a tough stem which may attain a length of 40 feet. The oval heart-shaped leaves resemble those of the morning-glory or sweet potato. The small bluish white flowers are in numerous axillary clusters, and resemble the flowers of the milkweed. The pollen grains are in waxy masses. The pods are very large, thick, tapering to a point; the seeds bear a tuft of long silky hairs, and are carried for miles by the wind.

Climbing milkweed, or blue vine, is widely distributed over the central and Gulf states from Iowa to eastern Texas, eastward to the Appalachian Ranges. As a honey plant it is important chiefly in southwestern Indiana and in central Missouri. It grows luxuriantly on the rich alluvial soils of the river-bottom lands, but does not thrive equally well on upland or thin clay soils. Commercially it is most valuable to the beekeeper in extreme southwest Indiana, along the lower portions of the Ohio, Wabash, and White rivers. In this region it is the main source of surplus. At Bloomfield, on the west fork of the White River, blue vine is reported to be spreading each year. As it is a perennial it dies down in the fall, but comes up again in the spring. It yields well only in dry seasons, and in the wet season of 1915 bees neglected the bloom entirely and no honey was secured. In Daviess County, also on the White River, there are thousands of acres of river-bottom cornfields, which give an unlimited pasturage of blue vine. Early in the season it is held in check by the cultivator; hut as soon as cultivation stops blue vine climbs the cornstalks, twining around the spindles, and reaching across from one row to another. It begins to bloom during the latter part of July, and by August 15 the honey flow is at its best. The plant is killed by the first frost. Sixty to eighty pounds of honey per colony are not infrequently obtained. A hive on scales recorded a daily gain of 4 pounds for 15 consecutive days. The honey is nearly white, or has a slight pinkish tinge, and an aromatic flavor. The flowers have a pleasing fragrance, which is very noticeable in the evening; and when the sections of honey are removed this delightful fragrance is at once apparent. It does not granulate readily, even in cold weather.

Blue vine should prove a good honey plant along the Ohio River in southern Illinois. At Brunswick, Missouri, at the junction of the Grand River with the Missouri River, blue vine or climbing milkweed is very abundant, and in a cornfield of 1200 acres there was not a stalk on which there was not a vine. It blooms from July to about September 10, and in dry seasons yields well. The honey is described as having the color of Colorado alfalfa honey, and a fine flavor.

BLUE-WEED (Echium vulgare). — Viper’s bugloss. Blue thistle. In fields and by the roadside from Maine to Virginia and Nebraska; a common weed in some sections. Naturalized from Europe. This species was formerly very abun-