CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 239 



sugars have the same general properties. The solid sugar of honey is 

 identical with the sugar of the grape." Such is the drift of- the 

 whole information that can "be gathered respecting the composition 

 of honey. 



On dissecting the honey-bee, we find the proboscis continued into a 

 beautiful ligula or tongue. It is a flexile organ, covered with circlets 

 of very minute hairs. The ligula of the honey-bee differs from that 

 of the other divisions of the bee family (the Andraenidas) both in 

 shape and microscopic appearance. It is probable that the bee uses 

 the ligula by inserting it in the nectar, which would be plentifully 

 collected by means of the hairs before mentioned. These hairs very 

 likely answer a somewhat similar purpose to the teeth of the rnollus- 

 can tongue. At the base of the proboscis commences the oesophagus, 

 which, after passing through the thorax, terminates in an expanded 

 sac, termed the honey-bag. This is an elastic glandular organ, 

 placed before the entrance to the true stomach. Into this sac the 

 saccharine fluid enters after being swallowed. Should, however, any 

 more solid substance be present, it is forwarded into the true stomach 

 for triUiration by the numerous teeth with which it is furnished. The 

 honey-gland also secretes a peculiar acid to be mentioned presently. 

 The bee retains the fluid portion in the honey-sac till the proper time 

 should arrive for deposition in the cell of the honeycomb. 



At the base of the corolla of a flower, on the thalarnus, is a part 

 termed by botanists " the disc." It is that portion which intervenes 

 between the stamens and the pistil. It is composed of bodies usually 

 in the shape of scales or glands. When examined at the proper 

 season, they are seen to abound in a thick, sweet fluid, which, since 

 the days of Aristotle and Virgil, has rejoiced in the name of " nec- 

 tar." On this account the part yielding it received formerly the name 

 of " nectary." Even in the present day those organs are the subject 

 of much misapprehension. Limiasus and his followers gave the term 

 nectary to any gland or organ for whose office they could not other- 

 wise account. The plants which furnish the greatest quantity of 

 nectar, and are therefore most liked by the bees, generally excrete it 

 from the disc of the flower. On many plants, however, as the ranun- 

 culus and fritillaria, a small glandular organ occurs at the base of 

 each petal, and in which also nectar is enclosed, though not in such 

 profusion as in the disc before alluded to. 



As will presently be shown, the nectar is a simple solution of cane- 

 sugar formed from the amylaceous sap of the flower, and elaborated 

 for the nutrition of stamens and pistil. What the bees find in the 

 flowers is the surplus left when these organs have been supplied. 

 The author examined every flower he could collect at the early 

 season of the year (April and May), and found sugar in them all, 

 whether furnished with discs, or nectariferous glands, or not ; and 

 came to the conclusion that sugar is necessary to the male reproduc- 

 tive organs of the flower, as it is in them chiefly to be found, the so- 

 called nectariferous body merely serving the purpose of a reservoir. 



The plants which in England arc most attractive to bees are, 

 mignonette, currant, hazel, wallflower, hollyhock, raspberry, broom, 

 rosemary, lime, buckwheat, clover, willow, gooseberry, lemon thyme, 

 heath, turnip, osier. 



