46 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



blue with iodine. After tlie lapse of from twen- 

 ty-four to forty-eight hours, the flower having 

 become much more expanded and the stamens 

 more mature, the fluid on being again tested will 

 have a sweet taste, and give a dirty blackish- 

 brown, instead of a blue with iodine. On cutting 

 out the disc of several ripe specimens of wall- 

 . flower the author obtained a syrupy, clear, color- 

 less fluid. This was mixed with a small quantity 

 of distilled water, treated with lime and carbon- 

 ic acid in the usual way, and filtered. The 

 filtrate was then concentrated, and allowed to 

 crystalize spontaneously on a glass slip. The 

 result was a beautiful regular cup of crystals of 

 cane-sugai. 



As tlie flower became mature, the saccharine 

 fluid was acted upon by the vegetable acids 

 more and more, until at length, when the ovary 

 being fertilized and the flower dead, a last ex- 

 amination showed the saccharine residue on the 

 withered disc to be nearly all grape-sugar, 

 almost incapable of being faiily crystalized. 



The hee, visiting the flowers when in their 

 prime, inserts its ligula into the blossom, and 

 laps up the greater portion of the liquid-sugar, 

 which, after- passing through the cesophagus, is 

 deposited in the honey-sac. It here comes in 

 contact with the secreting glands, which emit 

 an acid which the author's experiments showed 

 to be identical with formic acid.* This it is 

 which doubtless causes the peculiar tingling 

 sensation at the back of the throat when much 

 honey has been swallowed, and which is more 

 perceptible to some than others. The bee, after 

 its arrival at the hive empties the contents of the 

 lioney-sac into comb, where it remains until the 

 store of honey is taken. When separated from 

 the comb, the purest hone)' is a clear, thick, 

 liquid, which, after standing, becomes thicker, 

 till at length it "setf," as it is technically called. 

 A small bit of this, placed under a quarter of 

 an inch objective, shows that this is owing to 

 the grape-sngar (which has gradually been 

 forming at the expense of the cane-sugar) 

 crystalizing out in extremely thin, regular, 

 six-sided prisms. All the cane-sugar is retained 

 in the liquid portion of the honey. This crys- 

 talization proceeds till the whole of the cane- 

 sugar becomes converted into grape. When 

 this takes place, so great is the proportion of 

 crystals that the honey is said to " candy," and 

 is not considered so good from the presence of 

 acetic acid, which is produced by the grape- 

 sugar, which, in its turn, undergoes a change, 

 through the agency of fermentation. The hon- 

 ey crystals are not identical with those of cane- 

 sugar. 



On more closely examining a slide containing 

 a bit of old honey, besides the prisms, will be 

 seen small bundles of crystals. These are 

 manna-sugar. They remain after honey has 

 been fermented, and may thus be separated. 

 With these, small round or oval bodies will 

 also be noticed spread on the field of the micro- 

 scope, and on the pollen globules, showing in a 

 beautiful manner from what flower the honey 

 was collected. Of course they vary with each 



*We suspect that this formic acid will be found to be 

 not a secretion, but the product of a secretion.— Ed. 



locality ; but it is worthy of remark that a bee 

 will only visit the same species of flower at the 

 same journey ; for the examination of a great 

 number of bees will show that two kinds of 

 pollen are never found on the same insect, 

 although they may be very diff'erent on 

 another, working on the same flower-bed. A 

 single bee, with all its industry, energy, and 

 innumerable journeys it has to perform, will 

 not collect more than a teaspoonful of honey 

 in a single season ; and yet the total weight of 

 honey taken from a single hive, is often from 

 sixty to one hundred pounds. A very profit- 

 able lesson of what great results may arise from 

 persevering and associated labor ! 



The evidence on which the author relied for 

 the presence of formic acid, was by distilling 

 the honey and receiving the distillate in an 

 alkaline solution. The resulting solution, after 

 decomposition by an acid and evaporation, 

 afforded all the usual reactions, and readily 

 reduced the salts of silver. 



The foregoing facts, therefore, clearly show 

 that — 



First. Honey is derived simply from a solu- 

 tion of cane-sugar, identical in every respect 

 witli that from the sugar-cane. 



Secondly. That it afterwards receives the 

 addition of a small quantity of formic acid from 

 the glands of the bee. 



Thirdly. That cane-sugar afterwards becomes 

 gradually altered into grape-sugar by chemical 

 decomposition. 



The flavor of honey is, of course, quit acci- 

 dental, and dependant on the aroma of the 

 flowers the bees have visited. 



[From the Keokuk "Gate City. "J 



Honey Dews in the West and Southwest. 



It is now over forty-six years since myself and 

 some three or four other boys stood on a gravel 

 bar on the east fork of White Water river, in 

 Union county, Indiana, and near the village of 

 Brownsville, and in the afternoon the same day 

 we saw drops of pure honey falling and lighting 

 on the leaves of the alders. All of us tasted of 

 the honey. 



The weather was quite dry; the atmosphere 

 somewhat smoky, the days were quite warm, 

 and the nights rather cool; and from that time 

 to the present time I have witnessed many honey 

 dews, and all ol them have come on under sim- 

 ilar conditions of the atmosphere; that is, the 

 weather has always been dry, with cool nights 

 and warm days. Then, again, I have observed, 

 under certain conditions of the weather, that 

 honey bees will work but little on anything, and 

 will not deign to notice the bloom of buckwheat, 

 from the fact that it contained no honey. 



Honey dews in the valley of the Mississippi, 

 viz: forty degrees north, have generally come in 

 June, sometimes about the 1st of September, 

 though but seldom ai that time, 



I will now proceed to give some observations 

 that I made when on my way to California, in 

 the summer of 1850, and from about the 25th of 



