NECTAR; WHAT IT IS, AND SOME OF ITS USES.* 



[As the investigation of cotton insects has progressed, the importance 

 of the nectar glands of cotton in their influence upon the natural enemies 

 of the cotton and boll worms, has gradually become more and more ap- 

 parent, until at last it seemed imperative that some space should be 

 devoted in the report to a consideration of the general subject of nectar. 

 The following chapter was, therefore, prepared,' at my request, by Mr. 

 William Trelease, who has made the subject of the mutual relations of 

 plants and insects a special study. J. H. C.] 



Though as a scientific word it should possess precision, the word 

 nectar is far from conveying one idea when met with in the writings 

 of different authors. Purely mythological with most of the Greek and 

 Eoman writers, it signified the beverage of the gods. By Virgil it was 

 used apparently much as we now use it. "Others [of the bees] com- 

 press the clearest honey, and swell out the cells with liquid nectar." t 



Linnaeus defined a nectary as a "pars mellifera flori propriaf whence 

 nectar is a honey -like substance produced by such a floral gland. Dr. 

 Gray defines the word as follows : " Nectar: the honey, &c., secreted by 

 glands or by any part of the corolla" ;| or, again, " Nectar: the sweetish 

 secretions by various parts of the blossom, from which bees make 

 honey." Sachs says, " Glandular organs are found in the flowers which 

 secrete odorous and sapid (generally sweet) juices, or contain them 

 within their delicate cellular tissue, from which they are easily sucked 



* Since nectar is found in several parts of the cotton plant, and presents some 

 peculiar phenomena there, it has been thought best that I should treat briefly in this 

 place of its occurrence and economic value ; hence the present essay. My plan has 

 been to indicate what I understand by the word nectar ; to describe some of the more 

 instructive instances of its occurrence, in an order depending entirely upon the 

 nectariferous organs ; to then arrange these according to the purpose which thte nectar 

 serves in each case ; to discuss some of the cases more at length ; and, finally, to 

 briefly mention the habits of some nectar-loving animals when in quest of this bever- 

 age. Though limited time and prolonged ill-health have prevented me from making 

 this essay what I had wished it to be, I trust that it may not be found wanting in 

 what it professes to be an outline of the uses of nectar as we now understand them. 



WM. TKELEASE. 



ITHACA, N. Y., November 12, 1879. 



tGeorgics, iv, 1. 164. 



t Lessons in Botany, 1868, p. 222. 



Structural Botany, 1879, p. 421. 



319 



