American Bee Journal. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. v. 



SEPTEMBER,, l^eo. 



No. 3. 



The Origin of Honey. 



The following is an abstract of a paper on the 

 above suliject, read before the Bristol (England) 

 Microscopical Society, by W. W. Stoddard. 



Although honey is a familiar body, it is curi- 

 ous to note how little mention is made in any 

 chemical or botanical work, of the changes that 

 take place in its elimination, of its origin, or 

 even of its composition. Most chemical author- 

 ities simply state that the solid crystaline por- 

 tion of honey is grape-sugar, but say nothing of 

 the liquid. Johnson, in his ^'- Chemistry of 

 Common Life,'''' says :" Honey is formed and 

 deposited naturally in the nectaries of flowers, 

 and is extracted therefrom by the bees. When 

 allowed to stand for some time, it separates into 

 a white, solid sugar, consisting of white crys- 

 tals, and a thick semi-fluid syrup. Both the 

 »oli(i and the liquid sujar have the same general 

 properties. The solid sugar of honey is identi- 

 cal with the sugar of the grape." Such is the 

 drift of the whole information that can be gath- 

 ered respecting the composition of honey. 



On dissecting the honey bee, we find tlie pro- 

 boscis continued into a beautiful ligula or 

 tongue. It is a flexible organ, covered with 

 circlets of very minute hairs. The ligula of the 

 honey-bee differs from that of the other divi- 

 sions of the bee-family (the Andreuidse) both 

 in shape and miscrosopic appearance. It is 

 probable that the bee uses the ligula by insert- 

 ing it in the nectar, which would be plentifully 

 collected by means of the hairs before-mention- 

 ed. These hairs very likely answer a somewhat 

 similar purpose to ihe teeth of the molluscar 

 tongue. At the base of the proboscis commences 

 the ffisophagus, which after passing through the 

 thorax, terminates in an expanded sac, termed 

 the houcy-bag. This is an elastic glandular 

 organ, placed before the entrance of the true 

 stomach. Into this sac the saccharine fluid en- 

 ters after being swallowed. Should, however, 

 any more solid substance be present, it is for- 

 warded into the true stomach for trituration by 

 the numerous teeth with which it is furnished. 

 The honey gland also secretes a peculiar acid 

 to be mentioned presently. The bee retains the 



fluid portion in the honeysac till the proper 

 time should arrive for deposition in the cell of 

 the honey-comb. 



At the base of the corolla of a flower, on the 

 thalamus, is a part termed by the botanists "the 

 disc." It is that portion which intervenes 

 between the stamens and the pistil. It is com- 

 posed of bodies usually in the shape of scales 

 or glands. When examined at the proper sea- 

 son, they aro seen to abound in a thick, sweet 

 fl lid, which, since the days of Aristotle and 

 Virgil, has rejoiced in the name of ''nectar." On 

 this account the part yielding it received for- 

 merly the name of " nectary." Even in the 

 present day those organs are the sul)ject of 

 much misapprehension. Linnjeusand his follow- 

 ers give the term nectary to any gland or organ 

 for whose otBce they could not otherwise ac- 

 count. The plants which furnish the greatest 

 quantity of nectar, and are therefore most liked 

 by the bees, generally excrete it from the disc 

 of the flower. On many plants, however, as 

 ranunculas and fritillaria, a small globular organ 

 occurs at the base of each petal, and in which 

 also the nectar is enclosed, though not in such 

 profusion as in the disc before alluded to. 



As will presently be shown, the nectar is a 

 simple solution of cane-sugar formed from the 

 amylaceous sap of the flower, and elaborated 

 for the nutrition of stamens and pistil. What 

 the bees find in the fl.oiDers is the surplus left when 

 those organs have been supplied. The author 

 examined every flower he could collect at the 

 early season of the year, (April and May,) and 

 found sugar in them all, whether furnished with 

 discs, or nectariferous glands, or not ; and came 

 to the conclusion that sugar is necessary for the 

 male reproductive organs of the flower, as it is 

 in them chiefly to be found — the so-called necta- 

 riferous body merely serving the purpose of a 

 reservoir. 



The plants which, in England, are most attrac- 

 tive to bees, are mignonette, currant, hazel, 

 wail-flower, hollyhock, raspberry, broom, rose- 

 mary, lime, buckwheat, clover, willow, goose- 

 berry, lemon thyme, heath, turnip, osier. 



On examining an immature blossom of a 

 wall-flower, the vessels will be found filled 

 with an amylaceous fluid which gives a distinct 



