4u 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



carbonic acid through its appropriation by 

 living plants is ever being given back to it 

 through the decomposition of vegetable mat- 

 ter, there is and will continue to be in the 

 atmosphere, ample of carbon to supply the 

 ever recurring v?ants of the vegetable king- 

 dom. Hence we may look forward to an 

 annual honey crop while the vegetable king- 

 dom remains as now constituted; not always 

 uniform, however. 



It remains for me now to outline how liv- 

 ing plants elaborate honey from the carbon 

 of the atmosphere. We can only understand 

 this by knowing something of structural and 

 physical botany. We will select a tree for 

 our purpose, because it appeals more forci- 

 bly to our senses than a tiny plant. What 

 then is p tree ? I answer it is at once a liv- 

 ing and a dead thing. Every particle of ma- 

 tured wood in its trunk and branches is dead 

 matter. It is death preserved from decay 

 by its environments. It has in it no power 

 to aid in the further nourishment or develop- 

 ment of the tree. The leaves, the bark (es- 

 pecially the inner bark) and the sapwood 

 alone are alive, and in these the work of 

 nourishment and development are carried 

 on. It is in the leaves especially, that the 

 elaboration of suitable food for the plant or 

 tree is carried on. We ought therefore to ■ 

 know something of the structure of a leaf in 

 order to understand our subject ; but time 

 forbids a close mvestigation of it ; suffice it 

 to say that its pores and cells are what we 

 are more particularly concerned with — the 

 cells especially — because it is in the cells 

 honey is elaborated. The epidermis or out- 

 er skin of a leaf is closely studded with 

 pores, these pores range in number from 800 

 to 170,000 to the square inch of surface, and 

 it is through these pores the carbon of the 

 atmosphere is absorbed and received into 

 the cells, where it is worked into honey. 

 Cells also abound in the inner bark of branch 

 and stem, they are especially active in the 

 interposed Cambum -layer lying between the 

 newest strata of wood and bark. These are 

 annually renewed, and maintain a living 

 communication between the rootlets on the 

 one hand and the foliage on the other. These 

 cells — wherever found— contain protoplasm, 

 which has definite relations with neighbor- 

 ing cells, and with the outlying carbon of 

 the atmosjjhere. Protoplasm is the active, 

 working, living matter of the plant or tree. 

 When the carbonic acid of the atmosphere 

 is received into the protoplasmitc cells of the 



leaves of plants and trees it undergoes three 

 changes before it is fitted for cell building. 

 It is first converted into starch — the basis of 

 honey— then into sugar, or honey if you like, 

 afterwards into cellulose, which is fully 

 elaborated plant food. Every green plant 

 contains starch, therefore every living plant 

 has in it the basis of honey. Who then will 

 dogmatically assert what are and what are 

 not honey producing plants ? But this is 

 not germain to my topic. I have said when 

 the carbon of the atmosphere is absorbed by 

 the living plant it is first transformed into 

 starch through the agency of protoplasm 

 and leaf green and then into sugar. We stop 

 at this stage of the elaboration of plant food 

 because it is then, and then only, we get our 

 honey, and we get it in greater or less quanti- 

 ties in proportion to the reserved store of 

 starch. If plants had no power to store up 

 more starch than is necessary for their im- 

 mediate wants, we would have no abnormal 

 honey flows. But they have the power to 

 store up more of this article than they can 

 work into tissue, and do so occasionally. It 

 is under these circumstances we get the big 

 honey crops, if we have the working force 

 to collect it. The excess of food over the re- 

 quirements of the plant is, while in the sugar 

 stage, determined by the flower, or oozes 

 through the pores of the leaf, flowing over 

 its surface. The former is called nectar 

 and the latter honey- dew. They are sub- 

 stantially one and the same thing — the main 

 difference existing in the fact that that in 

 the flower absorbs a portion of its essential 

 oil which gives to the nectar its aroma, hence 

 the expert can readily tell the class of flow- 

 ers from which honey has been collected. 

 Honey-dew is destitute of this aroma, but is 

 just as healthful and nutritious as that : ol- 

 lected from the flowers. Perhaps some of 

 you will be ready to hold up your hands in 

 holy horror at the promulgation of this 

 theory, and be ready to declare me as great 

 a heretic as those who are by some believed 

 to be who gave to the world the pollen 

 theory, the trowel-sting theory and the sugar- 

 honey theory. I am . content to be so con- 

 sidered if you can disprove the statement. 

 Understand me, by honey-dew I do not 

 mean the vile stuff, vulgarly denominated 

 "bug-juice." That is a different thing. 

 When honey-dew is present it is frequently 

 devoured in large iiuantities by the little in- 

 sect you are all familiar with. The little 

 " beastie " is a glutton of the worst kind and 



