376 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[Nov. 7, 1884. 



addition of gypsum, the tartaric acid is replaced by sul- 

 phuric acid, and there is a perceptible increase in the 

 calcium ; the other constituents remain unaltered." His 

 conclusion is that the plastering of wine should be called 

 adulteration, and treated accordingly, on the ground that 

 the article in question is thereby deprived of its charac- 

 teristic constituents, and others, not normally present, are 

 introduced. This refers more especially to the plastering 

 or gypsum fining of finished wines (Biedermann's Central- 

 hlatt, 18S1, pp. 632 and 633) 



In the jiaper above named, by P. Carles, we are told that 

 " Owing to the injurious nature of the impurities of 

 plastered wines, endeavours have been made to free them 

 from these by a method called ' deplastering,' but the 

 remedy proves worse than the defect." The samples 

 analysed by Carles contained barium salts, barium chloride 

 having been used to remove the sulphuric acid. In some 

 oases excess of the barium salt was found in the wine, and 

 in others barium sulphate was held in suspension. 



Closely following the abstract of this paper, in the 

 Journal of the Chemical Societtj, is another from the French 

 Journal of Pharmaceutical Chemistri/, vol. 5, p. 581-3, to 

 which I now refer, by the way, for the instruction of 

 claret-drinkers, who may not be aware of the fact that the 

 phylloxera destroyed all the claret grapes in certain 

 districts of France, without stopping the manufacture or 

 diminishing the export of claret itself. In this paper, by J. 

 Lefort, we are told, as a matter of course, that " Owing to 

 the ravages of the phylloxera among the vines, substitutes 

 for grape-juice are being introduced for the manufacture of 

 wines ; of these, the author specially condemns the use of 

 Vieet-root sugar, since, during its fermentation, besides 

 ethyl, alcohol, and aldehyde, it yields propyl, butyl, and 

 amyl alcohols, which have been shown by Dujardin and 

 Audig^ to act as poisons in very small quantities." In con- 

 nection with this subject I may add that the French 

 Government carefully protects its own citizens by rigid 

 inspection and analysis of the wines offered for sale to 

 French wine-drinkers ; but does not feel bound to expend 

 its funds and energies in hampering commerce by severe 

 examination of the wines that are exported to " John Bull 

 ft son lie," especially as John Bull is known to have a 

 lobust constitution. Thus, vast quantities of brilliantly- 

 coloured liquid, flavoured with orris-root, which would not 

 be allowed to pass the barriers of Pari.i, but must go some- 

 where, is drunk in England at a cost of four times as much 

 as the Frenchman pays for genuine grape-wine. The 

 coloured concoction being brighter, and skilfully cooked, and 

 duly labelled to imitate the products of real or imaginary 

 celebrated vineyards, is preferred by the English gourmet 

 to anything that can be made from simple grape-juice. 



I should add that a character somewhat similar to that of 

 natural dryness is obtained by mixing with the grape-juice 

 wine a secondary product, obtained by adding water to the 

 ,iia,rc — i.e., the residue of skins, &c., that remains after 

 pressing out the must or juice ; a minimum of sugar is 

 dissolved in the water, and this liquor is fermented. The 

 i-kins and seeds contain much tannic acid or astringent 

 matter, and this roughness imposes upon many wine- 

 driukers, provided the price charged for the wine thus 

 cheapened be sufficiently high. After this, according to 

 Gardner (Churchill's Technological Handbook, " The 

 Brewer, Distiller, and Wine Manufacturer "), " the same 

 marc is treated in a similar manner with a fresh quantity 

 of sugar solution, and sometimes undergoes as many as 

 three or four separate macerations, each successive infusion 

 occupying a rather longer time. It will be easily under- 

 stood that wine thus prepared costs less than very small 

 beer, though its retail selling price may be regulated by the 



" etiquette " or label (from which I suppose our word 

 ticket is derived) that is finally pasted on the bottles. 



The special bouquets and curious flavours demanded by 

 connoisseurs can be more easily added to mixtures largely 

 composed of these second and third runnings than to 

 simple grajie-juice having its own grape flavour, just as the 

 juniper flavour is more easily added to " silent spirit " than 

 to whisky or cognac. We may thus obtain a clue to the 

 mysterious fact that the market is well supplied with 

 wines bearing the names of celebrated vineyards, of which 

 the whole produce is bought by special contract by certain 

 continental potentates. Many of these chateau vineyards 

 are so small that they cannot actually produce one-tenth of 

 the wine that is commercially derived from them. 



FERTILISATION OF BROAD-BEANS. 



By Gkant Allen. 



THE bean inquired about by " E. W. P.," he now writes, 

 is the ordinary garden broad-bean, Vicia faba. He 

 is sure that whatever insect pierces the corolla, bees do not. 

 But bees is almost as indefinite an expression as beans. 

 There are many beans and many bees, belonging to many 

 genera and species. The common garden bumble-bee 

 (Bombvs fwrtorum) is the most frequent visitor of the 

 broad-bean in England ; though several other Bombi also 

 enter it in the proper manner, and suck the honey which 

 is secreted at the base of the tube formed by the petal- 

 claws. These are the legitimate callers, and they fertilise 

 the flower in the ordinary fashion, by rubbing off pollen 

 from one blossom, and depositing it on the stigma of 

 the next one visited. The great hairy bumble-bee, 

 however {Bomhus terrestris), not taking the trouble 

 to enter the flower by the front door, as he ought 

 to do, bites a hole through the tube formed by the calyx 

 and corolla, and extracts the honey through it — of course, 

 without correspondingly benefiting the flower. Miiller has 

 caught him positively in the act, both in the case of Vicia 

 faba and of Vicia sepium ; and I have personally verified 

 either observation. Bonxbus terrestris, indeed, is a very 

 powerful and lazy bee, much given to thus cutting the 

 Gordian knot by biting holes and stealing honey, instead 

 of getting at it by the mouth of the corolla, in the regular 

 fashion. Miiller records a case in which he watched 

 " a female bumble-bee (B. terrestris) examining a colum- 

 bine ; she made several vain attempts to suck the honey, 

 but after awhile, having apparently satisfied herself that 

 she was unable to do so, bit a hole through 

 the corolla. Having thus secured the honey, she 

 visited several other flowers, biting holes through 

 them, without making any attempt to suck them first ; 

 conscious apparently that she was unable to do so. He 

 also observed a similar instance in relation to Primula 

 elatior" (Lubbock). In my own garden, this eame Bomhus 

 frequently bites holes through the long spurs of the common 

 " nasturtium," or Indian cress (Tropceolum majus), and 

 less often through the analogous curved organ in the Canary 

 creeper (T. Caivxriense). As to the true hive-bees l^Apis 

 mellifica), they are comparatively rare visitors of the broad- 

 bean, and they almost always eflect their entrance through 

 the holes previously bitten by the hairy bumble-bee. If 

 " E. W. P." will get any local entomologist to point him 

 out Bombus terrestris (one of the most marked and most 

 easily recognised of our wild bees), and will then watch 

 carefully whenever he sees one hovering about his broad- 

 beans, he will probably succeed in tracing to their real 

 source the bitten holes which he notices in the blossoms. 



