taining 1,158 colonies of bees. These 

 apiaries were distributed over quite an 

 extent of territory— from 7 to 9 miles 

 from east to west and the same distance 

 from north to south— his home apiary 

 being nearly central. By thus scatter- 

 ing liis bees he was sure of some surplus 

 honey from a portion of his bees, no mat- 

 ter how poor the season might be. His 

 crop of honey in 1874 from 700 colonies 

 in the spring was nearly 26,000 lbs. He 

 had at the time of his death in April, 

 1876, about 1,400 colonies of bees, which 

 were reduced by sale to 700, and these 

 were cared for, in part, by his son 

 George. What his profits were for 1876 

 I cannot say, as I think they have not 

 yet been made public. 



It is my impression that the candy 

 feeding experiment was a failure — hav- 

 ing lost all or nearly all the bees that 

 were thus fed. 



Mr. Grimm had several cellars fitted 

 up for wintering his bees, so as to save 

 the trouble and expense of moving them 

 back and forth from year to year. This 

 he still thought was the only safe plan 

 to pursue in wintering bees in northern 

 climates. 



During the last few years Mr. Grimm 

 gave his whole attention to the produc- 

 tion of honey and bees, and bred no 

 Italian queens for sale. He believed 

 that the hybrids were as good honey 

 gatherers as the pure Italians and bet- 

 ter for box honey. 



The shrewd and enterprising reader 

 may discover something in this com- 

 munication that he can utilize and 

 make profitable by its adoption. 



St. Charles, 111. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Where Honey Comes From. 



WILLIAM TRELEASE. 



Honey, or at any rate the sweet fluid 

 or nectar from which it is made, is col- 

 lected for the most part from flowers, as 

 everybody knows ; and every intelligent 

 bee-keeper can tell precisely what kinds 

 of flowers are best suited to its produc- 

 tion, some yielding much, others little, 

 and others none at all. Did you ever 

 ask yourself why this should be so ; 

 whether any particular organ exists in 

 the flower for the performance of this 

 function, and if so, how its structure 

 compares with that of the other parts ? 

 Let us together ask this question of the 

 flowers themselves. The first species 

 we interrogate shall be one which is 

 found in every house where flowers are 

 loved — the scarlet geranium, or Pelargo- 

 nium, as the botanists call it. 



Carefully plucking a newly expanded 

 flower by breaking its stem at the very 

 bottom, let us note the parts of which it 

 is made up : First of all comes the green 

 or purplish flower-stalk or pedicel (e, 

 Fig. 1), surmounted by five leaf-like or- 

 gans, the sepals, which together make 

 up the green cup or calyx in which the 

 other parts of the flower are situated 

 (c, Fig. 1). The uppermost of the five 

 (c') is broader than the others, and an 

 examination will show somewhere di- 

 rectly under it, on the flower stalk, a 

 purplish bulb, from each side of which 

 a faint groove may be traced to the cor- 

 responding side ot the sepal (c'). This 

 appearance is due to a part of the calyx 

 which has grown down as a spur or nec- 

 tary along the pedicel. Within the calyx 



Fig. 1. A.— Young flower of scarlet geranium, natural 

 size ; B— pistil and calyx of the same flower, show- 

 ing two openings into the nectary, magnified 5 

 diameters ; C— the pistil seen from the side. 

 %W In all of the figures a indicates the corolla; b, 

 the stamens; c, the calyx; d, the nectary, or spur of 

 the upper sepal c'; e, the flower-stalk or pedicel ; 

 p, the pistil ; o, the ovary ; s. the style ; 1, the epider- 

 mis or skin lining the cavity or cavities of the spur ; 

 2, that on the outside of the nectary. 



are the five scarlet petals forming the 

 corolla (a, Fig. 1), to which the flower 

 owes its beauty, while within these are 

 seven stamens, each composed of a white 

 and pink scale or filament, tapering to a 

 point above and surmounted by a small 

 pink sac, the anther (b, Fig. 1), and 

 filled with the brown pollen or male cle- 

 ment of the flower, Surrounded by 

 these stamens is the pistil or female 

 organ of the flower, with its green, hairy 

 base (0, Figs 2 and 3), the ovary, con- 

 taining what are to become tne seeds of 

 the plant, and its white and pink upper 

 portion, the style (s, Fig. 3). 



Holding the flower-stalk in one hand, 

 we gently bend the two upper petals 

 away from the center, and see between 



