240 ANNUAL O*: SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



On examining an immature blossom of a wallflower, the vessels 

 will be found filled with an amylaceous fluid which gives a distinct 

 blue with iodine. After the lapse of from twenty-four to forty-eight 

 hours, the flower having become much more expanded and the 

 stamens more mature, the fluid on being again tested will have a 

 sweet taste, and give a dirty bluish-brown instead of a blue with 

 iodine. On cutting out the discs of several ripe specimens of wall- 

 flower, the author obtained a syrupy, clear, colorless, fluid. This was 

 mixed with a small quantity of distilled water, treated with lime and 

 carbonic acid in the usual way, and filtered. The filtrate was then 

 concentrated, and allowed to crystallize spontaneously on a glass 

 slip. The result was a beautiful regular crop of crystals of cane- 



sugar. 



As the flower became more mature, the saccharine fluid was acted 

 upon by the vegetable acids more and more, until at length, when the 

 ovary being fertilized, and the flower dead, a last examination showed 

 the saccharine ^residue on the withered disc to be nearly all grape- 

 sugar, almost incapable of being fairly crystallized. 



The bee, visiting the flowers when in their prime, inserts its ligula 

 into the blossom, and laps up the greater portion of the liquid sugar, 

 which, after passing through the oesophagus, is deposited in the honey- 

 sac. It here comes in contact with the secreting glands, which emit 

 an acid which the author's experiments showed to be identical with 

 formic acid. This it is which doubtless causes the peculiar tingling 

 sensation at the back of the throat when much honey has been swal- 

 lowed, and which is more perceptible to some than others. The bee 

 after its arrival at the hive empties the contents of the honey-sac 

 into the comb, where it remains until the store of honey is taken. 

 "When separated from the comb, the purest honey is a clear, thick 

 liquid, which after standing becomes thicker, till at length it " sets," 

 as it is technically called. A small bit of this, placed under a quarter 

 of an inch objective, shows that this is owing to the grape-sugar 

 (which has gradually been forming at the expense of the cane) crys- 

 tallizing out in extremely thin, regular, six-sided prisms. All the 

 cane-sugar is retained in the liquid portion of the honey. This crys- 

 tallization proceeds as the whole of the cane-sugar becomes converted 

 into grape. When this takes place, so great is the proportion of crys- 

 tals that the honey is said to " candy," and is not considered so good 

 from the presence of acetic acid, which is produced by the grape- 

 sugar, which in its turn undergoes a change through the agency of 

 fermentation. The honey crystals are not identical with those of 



cane-sugar. 



On more closely examining a slide containing a bit of old honey, 

 besides the prisms will be seen small bundles of crystals. These are 

 manna-sugar. They remain after honey has been fermented, and 

 may thus be separated. With these, small round or oval bodies will 

 also be noticed spread over the field of the microscope, and are the 

 pollen globules, showing in a beautiful manner from what flower the 

 honey was collected. Of course they vary with every locality ; but 

 it is worthy of remark that a bee will only visit the same species of 

 flower at the same journey ; for the examination of a great number 

 of bees will show that two kinds of pollen are never found on the 





