86 UTILIZATION OF MINUTE LIFE. 



considerable quantity, such are, for instance, the 

 trumpet-honeysuckle, whose sugar is out of the bee's 

 reach, and the Coboea scandens, each flower of 

 which contains almost enough sugar to sweeten a 

 cup of coffee. 



But there is an important difference between 

 honey and the sweet juice of the nectaries of flowers. 

 The former contains no cane-sugar, whilst the latter, 

 as Braconnot has shown, yields by evaporation some 

 crystals of cane-sugar. The Rhododendron ponticum 

 and the Cactus Akermanni were found to contain so 

 notable a proportion that one corolla of the latter 

 gave as much as one-tenth of a gramme of crystal- 

 lized cane sugar. It is evident, therefore, that this 

 cane-sugar of flowers is converted into grape sugar 

 in the honey-bag or the cells of the bee. 



When honey is allowed to stand for some time, 

 it gradually thickens and consolidates. By pressure 

 in a linen bag it may then be separated into a white 

 solid sugar called grape sugar, as it is found in 

 grapes and raisins and a thick semi-fluid syrup, 

 called liquid sugar. Grape sugar is better extracted 

 by placing the honey upon a porous brick, which 

 absorbs all the liquid sugar, whilst the grape sugar 

 crystallizes at the surface. 



The liquid sugar of honey often contains odori- 

 ferous substances produced by the flowers from 

 which it has been extracted. To these the honey 



