THE BEE AND THE FLOWER. 



MRS. G. T. DRENNAN. 



VIRGIL, in his "Pastorals," beau- 

 tifully alludes to the industry 

 of the bee in culling its sweets 

 from the flower. Perhaps we 

 do not definitely know more of the 

 mystery of the flower's secreting the 

 nectar, and of the bee's making the 

 honey, than was known in ancient times. 

 There are differences of opinion on the 

 subject. Dirwin considers the honey se- 

 creted by the nectary to be the natural 

 food with which the stamens and pis- 

 tils are nourished. Others assert that 

 the only use of hone}- with which flow- 

 ers are supplied is to tempt insects, 

 which, in procuring it, scatter the dust 

 of the anthers and fertilize the flowers, 

 and even carry the pollen from barren 

 to fertile flowers. Linnaeus considered 

 the nectary a separate organ from the 

 corolla; and every part of the flower 

 which was neither stamen, pistil, calyx, 

 nor corolla, he called a nectary; but 

 what he called nectaries are at present 

 regarded as modifications of some part 

 of the flower; in some cases a prolon- 

 gation of the petals, and in others an 

 inner row of petals, or modified sta- 

 mens adhering to the corolla. The 

 term disk is now applied to whatever 

 appendages appear between the sta- 

 men and pistil, formerly called necta- 

 ries. The form of the honey sac, or 

 nectary, differs with different flowers. 

 In the lily it is a mere cavity, or gland. 

 In the honeysuckle a golden fluid is se- 

 creted at the end of the tube, without 

 the sac. Few things in nature can be 

 more beautiful than the nectary and 

 the honey drops in the crown imperial. 

 Each one is a shallow cup and pearly 

 white. From each cup hangs a shining 

 drop, like a tear. The tint of the cup 

 gives the drop its hue and each one 

 looks a splendid pearl fastened in the 

 crown of each of the flowers of the 

 crown imperial which, hanging down, 

 only display the pearly hone^ drops 

 when we look up into the flower. The 

 buttercup is one of the most interest- 

 ing flowers that secrete nectar. It be- 

 longs to the Ratmnculics, or crowfoot 

 family, which numbers many wild and 



some of the choicest of cultivated flow- 

 ers. The nectar-cups are under the 

 petals, and the mission of the flowers 

 seems to be to feed the bees. It is 

 well known that beyond the realm of 

 romance and poetry the buttercup is a 

 plant abhorred by the cow that gives 

 the milk that makes the butter. The 

 lovely yellow color of the buttercup no 

 doubt suggested the name. Apiarists 

 know that certain kinds of flowers make 

 certain grades of honey. They know 

 also that while the bee makes its honey 

 from the flower, it will also make honey 

 from sugar and molasses. The drain- 

 ings of molasses casks are given the 

 bee for winter food, and it is one of 

 the unsolved mysteries how the bee 

 makes its honey. The nectar in the 

 flower is not honey. The bee makes 

 the honey from what is abstracted from 

 the flower, and also preserves life and 

 makes honey from sweets that are given 

 it for food. Buckwheat is an example 

 of dark, rich honey and white clover 

 and raspberry blooms of clear, translu- 

 cent honey. Also the fact is, that ab- 

 stracting the nectar in no wise impairs 

 the beauty nor the fruitfulness of the 

 flower. Instance the rich, productive 

 buckwheat, how profusely it yields its 

 flower; and raspberries ripen sweet and 

 juicy from vines that have had the 

 bees hovering over the snowy blooms 

 from the time they open till the berries 

 form. Honey bees are not always safe 

 in their selection of flowers to feed 

 upon, for Xenophon, in his "Retreat of 

 theTen Thousand," describes thehoney 

 of Trebizond as having produced the 

 effect of temporary madness, or drunk- 

 enness, upon the whole army. Mr. Ab- 

 bott, writing from the same country in 

 1833, says he witnessed the same ef- 

 fects of honey upon those partaking of 

 it as Xenophon describes. 



This would indicate that the honey 

 undergoes some chemical change in 

 the making, as the bees, in these in- 

 stances, were not injured by the flowers, 

 yet the honey they made from them 

 was injurious to man. 



