926 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURi:. 



Dec. 



any thing wasted. Friend Black makes a valuable 

 statement in telling- what proportion of honey and 

 water, and I should like to add that too much honey 

 in the water will produce honey wine, or mead. 

 Friend B. asks if the vinegar can be changed back 

 to honey. No. it can not in any ordinary way. Boil- 

 itig would only concentrate it, and make what in the 

 drug-stofe is called acetic acid, or concentrated vine- 

 igar. In making wine, some sweet liquid is always 

 iised, just as in making vinegar, only the liquid 

 tnust be sweeter, or, more properly speakibg, there 

 tnust be more sugar in it. Now, in the process the 

 sugar is changed to alcohol, or spirit; and the more 

 sugar the liquid contains (grape juice, orange juice, 

 apple juice, or honey and water, as the case may 

 be), the more alcohol there will be in the wine when 

 thade. Alcohol is wholly volatile, will all eVapo- 

 tate, or boil away; so wine, if evaporated, would 

 leave a flavored water; but It sometimes happens 

 that the sugar (or honey) was not all changed to 

 Spirit; if such were evaporated, sweetened water or 

 Syrup (or honey) would be left. In conclusion, I 

 tvould suggest that friend Bingham would do well— 

 if he is a prohibitionist— to be sure that he is using 

 vinegar instead of wine. 



If I thought it would come safely by mail I would 

 send for one of those cheap hydrometers, or, as it 

 might properly be called, sacchai'ometer, or sugar- 

 measure. If you wish to publish the above it might 

 be well for you to put it into your honey-evaporator 

 for a while, to be " concentrated." C. C. Mir.ES. 



South Pasadena, Cal., Nov. 16, 1888. 



Thanks, friend M., for your additional 

 suggestions. Your plan is a good one in re- 

 gard to letting nothing go to waste; but we 

 should be very careful that that waste is not 

 converted into some other waste that will 

 waste away not only all the vigor of our best 

 young men, but also waste away our homes. 

 We presume, of course, this is your senti- 

 ment. 



CARDINAL FLOWER. 



SOME INTERESTING FACTS AS TO HOW NATURE 

 BRINGS ABOUT CROSS-FERTILIZATION. 



T AM very happy, friend Root, to send you, as per 

 ^ your request, a tine drawing of our beautiful 

 ^L Lobelia Cardinalis. If the engraver's art could 

 "*■ only add the rich green to the leaves, leaflets, 

 sepals, and stem, and the gorgeous carmine to 

 the petals, the figure would almost speak the flow- 

 er's name. 



Friend Root, do you remember what ludicrous 

 blunders Agassiz made when he attempted to write 

 of bees? He was a master in science, yet the hum- 

 blest bee-keeper in the land could have taught even 

 Agassiz very much. The point I wish to make is: 

 If we wish to learn of bees and their work, we go to 

 a bee-man ; so when we wish to learn as to the na- 

 ture, growth, development, and general economy 

 of plants, we will, if wise, go to a flrst-class botan- 

 ist. W. E. Gladstone is a marvelous man, but I 

 would give a thousand times as much for Dr. Beal's 

 opinion on an intricate matter connected with 

 plants as I would for Gladstone's. Now for my 

 point: All our botanists believe that odor and color 

 in flowers are developed peculiarities. They have 

 been evolved for the good of the plant. The meth- 

 od by which they aid the plants is by attracting in- 

 sects. We positively know that insects by cross- 



fertilizing the flowers of the same species do im 

 mense good to the plants. This often changes ster 

 ility to maximum productiveness, and almost al- 

 ways increases the productiveness many fold. Of 

 course, as bees are so much more numerous in early 

 spring than any and all other sweet-loving insects 

 they are the chief agents in this good work. We 

 may say, then, that the rich coloration and pene 

 trating odors of flowers are their distress signals 

 Bees see the colors or smell the odors, and so are 

 attracted, to the mutual benefit of both parties. 

 We see, then, why many showy flowers, like this 

 cardinal, bloom, and the Rocky Mountain or Colora- 

 do oleoma attract bees and other insects without 

 odor. Other inconspicuous flowers, like mignonette, 

 are very fragrant, and so attract insects by scent, 

 not gaudy coloration. Still others, like the phlox, 

 are both showy and fragrant. 



CAHDINAI, FI.OWEK. 



Again, are not our bees governed by reason? It 

 is sometimes said, that bees are wholly ruled by in- 

 stinct. I do not think so. A red-clover field is rich 

 in clover, and delightful with fragrance. Yet the 

 honey-bee generally passes it by. A less fragrant 

 and more feebly adorned white-clover field at the 

 same time rings with the hum of bees. Why the 

 ditterence? The bees have learned by experience 

 that they receive no benefit from red clover. In- 

 deed, the very fact that they are attracted by color 

 argues that they ai-e i-easoning from former experi- 

 ence. Bees are, in a sense, botanists. 



Our beautiful cardinal flower belongs to the fami- 

 ly LoheliacecB, or the lobelia family, a small family 

 that also contains a few species of blue flowers, 

 which, though less showy than the cardinal, are 



