1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



647 



Cleanincsfrom the PacificXoast 



By Prdf. A.J.Cook. Pomona Coi.i.ece:-Cal.^ 



STOMACH-MOUTH OF BEES. 



I think there is no other animal in the 

 world that has such a marvelous variety of 

 functions as has the honey-bee. This com- 

 plex physiology implies an equally marvel- 

 ous anatomy. Once to think what the bee 

 can do! It can gather nectar in three ways, 

 and digest it. It can gather in the pollen 

 and other forms of proteid food, and convert 

 them into assimilable aliment. It can sepa- 

 rate the pollen from the honey in its honey- 

 stomach. It can bear the wax scales from 

 venter to mouth, knead them, and then 

 fashion them into the marvelous comb. It 

 can prepare food, and administer it to queen 

 and larvae. It can gather the propolis. We 

 need not wonder, then, that the anatomy of 

 the bee is something surprising. The won- 

 drous tongue and other complex mouth- 

 organs; the antennge, which answer as deli- 

 cate sense-organs; the great compound eyes 

 and much smaller simple eyes; the colossal 

 glands, which are surpassed only by those 

 of the well-knovra silk caterpillar; the wax- 

 glands; the varied compound hairs; the an- 

 tennffi- cleaners on the front legs; the pol- 

 len-brushes on the middle legs, and the pol- 

 len-baskets and wax-jaws of the hind legs — 

 these together, with the stomach-mouth, 

 give us an anatomy that challenges compar- 

 ison in all the realm of animal life. To-day 

 I wish to speak only of the stomach-mouth. 



This is a small spherical organ situated in 

 the hinder end of the honey-stomach. Pic- 

 ture, if you please, the honey-stomach as a 

 small horizontal bag, which, as we pull the 

 head from the thorax or the thorax from 

 the abdomen of the bee, often comes out so 

 that it is plainly visible. In this case it is 

 usually full of nectar. Can we not picture 

 a minute apple-shaped body, at the very 

 hinder end of this little bag? Imagine the 

 apple cut into quarters, and imagine these 

 quarters slightly reduced, and the skin not 

 cut, except a small opening at the stem end 

 of the apple, which is forward, and a second 

 small opening at the blossom end, which, of 

 course, is at the extreme hinder end of this 

 little sac. Picture again numerous hairs on 

 the inside of these quarters, all pointing 

 back. It is easy to demonstrate all this if 

 we kill a bee and at once separate the tho- 

 rax and abdomen, pulling out the honey- 

 stomach. If we put this in a warm saline 

 solution, say of common salt, and open it 

 under a good dissecting microscope, we shall 

 see the four quarters of the stomach-mouth 

 constantly open and shut, or pull apart and 

 then close together, thus enlarging and re- 

 ducing the space between the four sections. 

 It is obvious what the effect of these mo- 



tions will be. As the quarters recede, honey 

 from the honey-stomach will push in; as 

 they close, they close first back, and the 

 honey is again thrown back into the honey- 

 stomach. The pollen, however, is caught 

 by the hairs, and can not return with the 

 honey. Thus, all the time that the bee is 

 gathering, this little stomach-mouth is act- 

 ively engaged in straining out the pollen 

 from the nectar. We understand, then, why 

 the nectar goes into the cells of the comb so 

 free of pollen. It may not, usually will not, 

 be entirely eliminated, though we may ex- 

 pect very little and will rarely be disap- 

 pointed. 



THOMAS W. COWAN. 



We are glad to know that Mr. Cowan has 

 again returned to our country and State. 

 Those of us who know Mr. Cowan can not 

 but appreciate his great ability and equal 

 courtesy. It is good to know a man who is 

 so thoroughly and invariably the gentleman. 

 As editor of the British Bee Journal he has 

 great influence, and has done very much for 

 our art. Like all great men, Mr. Cowan is 

 an example of modesty. He never pushes 

 himself to the front. His book, ' ' The Hon- 

 ey-bee," is one of the very best ever writ- 

 ten by any one. Though small, it is yet 

 wonderfully complete, as it is an example of 

 conciseness. It is a model of accuracy, so 

 that no one need question any statements of 

 facts taken from this work. Mr. Cowan has 

 also inventive genius, as indexed in his au- 

 tomatic extractor, which, so far as I know, 

 is not excelled by any similar machine in 

 the market. It only remains to be said that 

 Mrs. Cowan is as delightful as her husband. 

 To know such people is to be enriched, and 

 we may all rejoice that Mr. Cowan is with 

 us again. 



THE WHITE SAGE. 



This incomparable honey-plant, Ramona 

 poly Stacy hia, is responding to the splendid 

 rains of the present season. In all the elev- 

 en years of my sojourn at Claremont I have 

 never seen such a wide and vigorous growth 

 of this plant. This is not strange; for, as 

 we all know, all plants respond quickly to 

 abundant moisture. The present season has 

 been one of the finest, in the way of rain, 

 that California has experienced for long 

 years. We have had well nigh four inches 

 of rain in the last week, and the rainfall of 

 the season is now double the average. This 

 not only touches the bee-keeping industry 

 with energizing stimulus, but it also helps 

 powerfully our entire agriculture. Califor- 

 nia is bound to have an exceptionally pros- 

 perous year. The white sages are already 

 many feet high, and the light green of their 

 foliage, and the similarly colored stem, is a 

 pleasing mark on the landscape. In the 

 past week I have ridden for miles through 

 avenues formed by these beautiful shrubs. 

 The plants are already in bud, and the long 

 racemes will soon throw out their wealth of 

 bloom, which will not only attract the bees. 



