AGRICULTURE AND PLANTING. 2^ 



On the component Principles of' Vegetables. 



But having described the nature and properties of the pollen, when treating 

 on the fructification of plants, little more is necessary to be said on that head here. 



XIII. Concerning Honey. 

 , The production of honey is perhaps one of the most important vegetable 

 secretions, except that of the prolific farina from the anthers; and of the favilla, 

 or new embryon, in the axilla of the leaf. 



The nectary, or honey-cup, is evidently an appendage of the corol, aftd is 

 the reservoir of the honey, which is secreted by an appropriate gland from the 

 blood after its oxygenation in the corol, and is absorbed for nutriment by the 

 sexual parts of the flower. 



Honey, or the nectar of flowers, is contained chiefly in the base of the 

 pistil, or female organ. It serves as food for most insects which have a proboscis. 

 These animals plunge their proboscis into the pistil, and suck out the nectar. It 

 appears to be a solution of sugar in mucilage: the sugar is sometimes precipitated 

 in crystals, as in the nectar of the flower of balsamina. 



The nectar undergoes no alteration in the body of the bee, since we can form 

 honey by concentrating the nectar. It retains the odour, and not unfrequently 

 the noxious qualities of the plant which affords it. 



The secretion of the nectar is made during the season of fecundation. It 

 may be considered as the vehicle and recipient of the fecundating dust, which 

 facilitates the bursting of the globules, filled with this fecundating powder. 

 XIV. Concerning the ligneous part of Vegetables. 



Chemists have constantly directed their attention to the analysis of veget- 

 able juices; but they appear to have completely neglected the solid part of the 

 vegetable, which in every point of view is entitled to particular attention. 



The ligneous part, or wood of vegetables, is the universal solid basis of all 

 vegetable organization. In hard vegetables, it is much more copious, than in those 

 which are soft. It is insoluble in water. It affords by distillation, that particular 



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