STINGS. 



415 



SUNFLO^VER. 



thought that they were for the purpose of 

 conducting the poison to the wound from 

 the canals G and F, the latter communicat- 

 ing directly with the poison-bag itself. In- 

 deed, Frank Cheshire says they afford the 

 only means of exit for the poison, but Ento- 

 mologist Snodgrass, of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, says this is a mistake. 



Fig. 3 is a transverse section, sliced across 

 the three parts, at about the dotted line D. 

 A and B are the barbed spears; F and G, 

 the hollows to give them lightness and 

 strength; H, H, the barbs. It will be ob- 

 served that the husk, D, incloses but little 

 more than i of them. Now, the purpose of 

 this husk is to hold the barbs in place, and 

 to allow them to slide easily up and down, 

 also to direct them while doing this work. 

 To hold all together, there is a groove like a 

 chopping-knife in both spears, with a corres- 

 ponding projection in the husk, which fit each 

 other as shown. This allows the barbs to 

 project to do their work, and yet holds all 

 together tolerably firm. We say tolerably 

 firm, for these spears are very easily torn out 

 of the husk; and after a sting is extracted 

 they are often left in the wound, like the tiny 

 splinters we have before mentioned. When 

 torn out and laid on a slip of glass they are 

 scarcely visible to the naked eye ; but under 

 the microscope they appear as in Fig. 2. 



Stings do not all have the same number 

 of barbs. We have seen as few as seven and 

 as many as nine. The two spears are held 

 against each other as shown in Fig. 3, and 

 you will observe that the shape and the ar- 

 rangement of the three parts leaves the hol- 

 low, E, in their center. The working of 

 the spears also pumps down poison, and 

 quite a good-sized drop collected on their 

 points while we saw them working under 

 the microscope. Friend Bledsoe found a 

 valve that lets it out of the poison-bag 

 into this wonderful little pump, but pre- 

 vents it returning. We have not been able 

 to see this, but have no doubt that it is 

 there. The drop of poison, after lying on 

 the glass a few minutes, dries down and 

 seems to leave a gummy substance that crys- 

 tallizes, as it were, into strange and beauti- 

 ful forms. We have tried to show it to you 

 in Fig. 4. 



SUCROSE. See Cane Sugar. 



SUOAB. The term sugar is applied, by 

 common consent, to the pure sugar commer- 

 cially prepared from the sugar-cane and the 

 sugar beet, or sucrose. There are, however, 

 many more sugars of vaiying character. 



Common sugar is composed of the elements 

 — carbon, 12 parts; hydrogen, 22 parts; oxy- 

 gen, 11 parts. A white sugar or granulated 

 sugar is a pure sucrose, while the varying- 

 ofl colors ranging from liglit yellow to 

 brown, are mostly mixtures of sucrose and 

 varying quantities of molasses. These are 

 prepared first in the process of manufac- 

 ture, and are known as coffee, yellow prime, 

 yellow clarified, and brown sugar. By wash- 

 ing with water, and also refining, they are 

 made into white sugar. 



The yellow sugars have somewhat of a 

 molasses taste which is particuhirjy agree- 

 able to some people. See Cane Sugau. 



SUIKIAC [Ehus glabra). This is a sort of 

 shrub, or small tree, readily known by its 

 bunches of bright-red fruit, having an in- 

 tensely sour taste. The acid property, how- 

 ever, seems to be only on the surface of the 

 fruit, in the red dust that may be brushed 

 off. We have had no experience with the 

 honey, which the bees sometimes get in large 

 quantities from the small greenish flowers, 

 but give the following from page 96, Glean- 

 ings for 1874 : 



June 23, 1874.— Contrary to expectations, we are 

 now in the height of a wonderful flow of honey from 

 sumac, which of late years has not yielded much. 

 Every thing- in the hives is flUed full, and 1 am kept 

 busy hiving swarms, as it has become too much of a 

 job to keep them from swarming by removing 

 frames of brood. G. F. Mekriam, Topeka, Kan. 



SUNFLOWER (Helianthus species). This 

 plant embraces an extensive genus; but the 

 principal ones for honey are the common sun- 

 flower and the Jerusalem artichoke. Some 

 seasons and in localities we find bees very 

 busy indeed on these plants all day long. 

 The mammoth Kussian sunflower bears 

 flowers of enormous dimensions; and from 

 the way bees crowd one another about the 

 nectaries, one would suppose they furnished 

 much honey. The seed, which is yielded in 

 large quantities, seems almost to pay the ex- 

 pense of cultivation. The following is taken 

 from page 36, Vol. III., of Gleanings : 



My boy had a small box of sunflower seeds which 

 he kept as one of his playthings. Last spring he ac- 

 cidentally spilt them in the garden by the fence, 

 and, old as they were, they came up profusely. They 

 looked so thrifty 1 took it into my head to trans- 

 plant them. I set them all around in the fence, out 

 of the way, where nothing else would grow to advan- 

 tage, and, if you will believe me, I had an enormous 

 crop. When they blossomed the bees went at them 

 in earnest ; and after the bees got through with them 

 there were several quarts of seed. I sold a dollar's 

 worth to my druggist ; the remainder 1 fed out to 

 my hens, and, as a writer of old has said, 1 found 

 nothing so good and nourishing for laying hens as 



