180 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



all that is fluid in their abdomen after they are destroy- 

 ed by their rivals''. — Several flowers that produce much 

 honey they pass by ; in some instances from inability to 

 get at it. Thus, for this reason probably, they do not 

 attempt those of the trumpet-honeysuckle, which, if 

 separated from the germen after they are open, will 

 yield two or three drops of the purest nectar. So that 

 were this shrub cultivated with that view, much honey 

 in its original state might be obtained from a small 

 number of plants. In other cases, it appears to be the 

 poisonous quality of their honey that induces bees to 

 neo-lect certain flowers. You have doubtless observed 

 the conspicuous white nectaries of the crown imperial, 

 (Fritilluria imperialism L.) and that they secrete abun- 

 dance of this fluid. It tempts in vain the passing bee, 

 probably aware of some noxious quality that it pos- 

 sesses. The oleander {Nerium Oleander, L.) yields 

 a honey that proves fatal to thousands of imprudent 

 flies; but our bees, more wise and cautious, avoid it. 

 Occasionally, perhaps, in particular seasons, when 

 flowers are less numerous than common, this instinct 

 of the bees appears to fail them, or to be overpowered 

 by their desire to collect a sufticicnt store of honey for 

 their purposes, and they suffer for their want of self- 

 denial. Sometimes whole swarms have been destroyed 

 by merely alighting upon poisonous trees. This hap- 

 pened to one in the county of West Chester in the prc- 

 yince of New York, which settled upon the branches 

 pf the poison-ash {Jihiis Vtrnix, li.). In the following 

 niorniugthe imprudent animals were all found dead, and 

 swelled to more than double their usual size ''. Whether 



* SJchirach, 45. Huber, i. 179. " Nicholson's Journtl, xxiii. 287. 



