For the American Bee Journal. 



Where Honey Comes From— No. 2. 



WILLIAM TRBLEASE. 



It will be remembered that we found 

 a spur formed by ;i prolongation of one 

 of tbe sepals of the scarlet geranium, 

 in which nectar is secreted by the mod- 

 ified epidermal cells which line the 

 lower part of the tube. Quite similar 

 spurs are not infrequently produced on 

 the sepals and petals of flowers, as, for 

 example, on the petals of the columbine, 

 and those of the bleeding-heart and its 

 pretty wild relatives, the squirrel-corn 

 and Dutchman's breeches ; but, though 

 spurs of this kind may secrete much 

 nectar, their length often excludes hive 

 bees from enjoying it. 



Prominent among the honey plants of 

 the spring is the basswood or linden. 

 In the flowers of this tree we shall look 

 in vain for a spur of any depth, though 

 their honeyed treasure is plentiful. A 

 careful examination, however, soon 

 shows that this comes from the inner, 

 concave surface of the sepals. Between 

 one of these and the gland of our gera- 

 nium the difference is one of degree 

 only, and not of kind. 



Very early in the spring the willows 

 afford a rich harvest to our patient 

 gleaners, but a satisfactory study of 

 their flowers can only be made by the 

 aid of a hand lens — for instance, one of 

 the folding linen-testers, to be obtained 

 from almostany jeweler, which from its 

 small cost (50 cents or less) is within the 

 reach of all, and for the pleasure its use 

 may afford, if for no other reason, is as 

 profitable an investment of a small sum 

 as can be made, since no observing per- 

 son can spend an hour among the works 

 of Nature without finding many oppor- 

 tunities to use it. Everybody knows 

 that the catkins or flower-clusters of 

 willows are of two sorts. On one plant 

 they are of a bright yellow, from the 

 abundance of pollen which they bear ; 

 on another, their silvery hue is only 

 relieved here and there by the yellow- 

 ish stigmas. A catkin of this latter 

 sort consists of many simple flowers, 

 each of which can boastof only a single 

 scale for its floral envelope, and a 

 stalked, flask-shaped pistil for its essen- 

 tial organ. At the base of the latter, a 

 small yellow knob or protuberance may 

 be seen, which secretes the nectar, for 

 which these female catkins are visited 

 by bees. The yellower catkins of other 

 plants are male or staminate, only, and 

 each of their flowers consists of a scale, 

 and two stamens, the anthers of which 

 are borne on long and thread-like fila- 

 ments, at the base of which is a small 



and not very active nectar gland. • 

 Another and most valuable bee plant 

 is the white clover, each head of which 

 is readily seen to be made up of a num- 

 ber of small flowers that are obviously 

 of more complex structure than those 

 of the willow, inasmuch as each consists 

 of a calyx, an irregular corolla of pecu- 

 liar shape, ten stamens partly grown 

 together, and a central pistil. Between 

 the stamens and the pistil may be seen 

 a small yellow ring or gland, the nature 

 of which is immediately suggested by 

 its similarity to that of the willow. This 

 is the organ charged with the duty of 

 elaborating the nectar found so abun- 

 dantly in the flowers. 



Many other examples might be de- 

 scribed, but it must suflice us to merely 

 mention a few flowers in which large 

 nectar glands of this kind are found. 

 Such are the common blue periwinkle, 

 the cow-pea of the South, and many 

 other representatives of the pea family, 

 and the Salvias or sages, with many of 

 their labiate relatives. 



Some flowers neither have a part of 

 their sepals or petals modified and serv- 

 ing as glands like the geranium and 

 basswood, nor possess glandular knobs 

 or rings like the willow and clover, yet 

 they produce nectar enough to attract 

 various insects. Of this kind is the cot- 

 ton flower, in which there is not usually 

 nectar enough to induce the visits of 

 hive bees, though certain wasp-like in- 

 sects may be constantly seen in them 

 during the warm, sunny weather. Oiir 

 lens shows us that the secreting organs 

 here take the form of small glandular 

 hairs on the lower part of the petals. 

 Though not so common as the other 

 kinds, nectar glands of this form are 

 occasionally met with. In a few cases, 

 which are not of much practical inter- 

 est to bee- keepers, this sweet fluid which 

 we call nectar is found in abundance 

 within the fleshy walls of spur-like ap- 

 pendages of the floral envelopes, and in 

 other like situations, whence it can be 

 obtained by insects only after they have 

 pierced through the outer tissue. A 

 knowledge of this fact offers us at once 

 a temptation to ascribe all visits of bees 

 to flowers from which they do not collect 

 pollen and in which we can find no free 

 nectar and no nectar glands, to some 

 such diffused glandular tissue ; but this 

 ought to be a last resort, after a micro- 

 scopic examination shows no other 

 glandular structure, and after repeated 

 observations show that the bees are 

 really engaged in collecting nectar. In 

 a future article we will describe a class 

 of concealed glands, speculations con- 

 cerning the true nature of which have 

 led to a number of mistakes. 



