372 



STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETINS. 



nectar is often largely cane sugar, while honey is largely reducing sugar, 

 thus the nectar which the bees gather from the tlowers is transformed 

 before it becomes honey. There is hardly any doubt that the secretions 

 from the large compound racemose glands in the head and thorax of bees 

 furnishes the ferment which indnces this change. 



4. It seems more than likely that when bees gather houey very rapidly 

 (they have been known to gather twenty pounds per colony in a day) that 

 this reduction might be less complete, and so the honey would contain 

 more cane sugar and less reducing sugar than would be found in honey 

 which was produced more slowly. It was thought that this would account 

 for the fact of the varying amounts of cane sugar in different specimens 

 of honey. Again, we find the large glands, already referred to, in both 

 the drones and the queen bees. This fact would argue that honey is not 

 always reduced, and so the queen and drone bees would often have to 

 digest the honey, or a portion of it. It is not at all likely that these bees 

 would possess these glands if all honey was entirely destitute of this 

 cane sugar. 



I have the following from Dr. H. W. Wiley, our government chemist, 

 regarding the composition of nectar: 



"Referring to my statement in my former letter in regard to the composition of nec- 

 tar, I think I am strictly correct. 



Mr. Alex. S. Wilson, of the Glasgow University, published in the Chemical News, of 

 August 23, 1878, a determination of total sugar in eight kinds of flowers giving also the 

 proportion of fruit sugar, that is invert sugar or reducing sugar, and cane sugar esti- 

 mated as fruit sugar. The proportions which he found are as follows: 



Sugar in Flowers. 



Total, 

 mg. 



1. Fuchsia, ppr flower.- 



2. Ciaytoaia alBinoiiles pfr flower.. 



3. EverlastinK P«a, per flower 



4. Vpt<;h (Vicin cracca) i'«r raceuie 



5. Ditto, per sinnle flower 



6. Red clover. p->r head 



7. Ditto, per floret 



8. Monkshead, per flower 



7, .59 



0.413 



9.93 



3.16 



O.l.-iS 



7.93 



0.132 



6.41 



Frnit. 

 mg. 



1.69 



0.17.5 



8.33 



3.15 



0.1.5S 



5.95 



0.099 



4.63 



Cane 



(as Frnit) 



mg. 



5.9 

 0.238 

 1.60 

 0.0 1 



1.98 

 0.033 



1.78 



Of the eight flowers e.xatnined only two contamed a larger proportion of cane sugar 

 than of fruit. Vou see that my statement is absolutely borne out by these analyses. 



A very e.xtensive study of the composition of nectar was made by G. Bonnier and 

 published in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Vol. 8. page 78. Bonnier also gives 

 references to all preceding works on the composition of nectar. He cites very many I 

 am not able to consult because they e.xtend as far back as 183;5. 



Speaking of nectaries of plants, he says that in certain circumstances they emit a 

 saccharine liquid called nectar and this liquid contains sugars of two kinds, viz., sac- 

 charoses and glucoses. Of the saccharoses which are found in the nectar the principal 

 one is cane sugar. Rarely there is found melezitose or mannitose. Of the glucoses 

 the most common are dextrose and levulose forming invert sugar. In most cases M. 

 Bonnier observes there is a little more dextrose than levulose. 



Braconnot was one of the earlier authors who first pointed out that cane sugar 

 existed in considerable quantities in the nectar of plants. In general, the nectar of 

 plants is a solution of sugars, in which cane sugar, dextrose, levulose and a few other 

 carbohydrates in small quantities are found. It is also more or less acid in its reaction; 

 very acid in the case of some nectars like those of the Cicer, Lathyrus pratensis and 

 almost neutral in the case of Vicia sativa. 



The quantity of water which nectar contains in its natural state is very variable with 



