TH^ MMERICMN MSW JOTPHNSIr. 



638 



der about, crawl into some other hive, 

 or perish in their lost condition. 



Sometimes when hiving a swarm, I 

 dip up a cupful of bees and pour thera 

 into the prepared hive ; tliey imme- 

 diately set up a loud "roar,'- and the 

 swarm promptly answer: and they rush 

 into the hive with that joyous hum 

 which thrills the heart of the true 

 lover of bees with joy, that is difficult 

 to describe. Do you say that rihration 

 guides tlie bees, and not sound .' What 

 18 "sound " but an impression made on 

 the subject by concussion or vibration 

 of the atmosphere ? 



To say that sound is not the same 

 thing identically to the insect that it is 

 to animals of higher order, proves 

 nothing, because it cannot be proven 

 that sound is precisely the same thing 

 to the lower animal that it is to the in- 

 tellectual being. Bees heeu- in a sense 

 which answers all their purposes, and 

 this is all that can be said of other 

 animals. 



Selecting a Home before Sn'ariulns. 



This is an old doctrine. It has age 

 on its side. It had its origin away back 

 in the ages of bat-eyed fogyism as per- 

 tains to bees. There is such a touch- 

 ing story here, about the sending out 

 of "scouts" to locate a future home 

 while the swarm waits with patience 

 and hope. There are among these 

 "scouts" some good Joshuas and 

 Calebs — they will bring in a good 

 report. jst 



It is hopeless, perhaps, to try to be 

 an educator along this line. Mr. 

 Youngman, on page 567, publishes a 

 case of "sending out scouts," which 

 appears conclusive to him. liut to me 

 it is easy to see what attracted those 

 bees which he took for scouts, " clean- 

 ing out a new home." The "chunks 

 of propolis and fragments if comb" 

 adhering to the hollow tree is what at- 

 tracted the bees there. They were 

 foraging for bee-glue, and doubt- 

 less they unwittingly answered as a de- 

 coy to tlie homeless swarm as it passed 

 that way. I once saw a swarm enter 

 an empty hive in my apiary, directed 

 there by the same cause. 



No evidence that will hear investiga- 

 tion has ever been published, to war- 

 rant the belief that bees locate and 

 " clean up " a home in advance of their 

 taking actual possession. 



Honey Is Not DIgcated Nectar. 



Since writing the above items the 

 Bee .Journal has come to hand, and 

 Prof. Cook's reply to my article on 

 page 5()8, has been noted. I am as 

 much astonished, and grieved, at the 

 Professor's reply, as he was surprised 

 and pained because of my article. 

 What have I said against --true 

 science "that justifies the heated and 

 spontaneous defense of Prof. Cook ';:' 

 No man has a higher appreciation for 

 what '■ true ecience " has done for the 

 "nineteenth century," than myself. 

 But vagaries and absurd theories are 

 not science. Against these (not true 

 science) I hurl ridicule, because no 

 other weapon can reacli them. True 

 science is not the child of one father 

 nor of one " mother," hence the "" base 

 ingratitude " which so stirs the Profes- 

 sor is a thing of bis imagination. 



Yes, " there are more things in 

 heaven and earth " than I ever dreamt 

 of, and the remark is true when I ap- 

 ply it to my honored friend, Prof. 

 Cook, or to any other living man ; but 

 I am pretty certain that no man can 

 lift himself by the straps of his boots. 



Our learned author says, " that honey 

 is more or less perfectly— what words 

 are these ?— digested nectar is as cer- 

 tain as the world is round." This is at 

 par with his dogmatic assertion that, 

 "bees never hibernate." The one as 

 well as the other rests alone on bis 

 Ipse dixit. 



" That all honey is equally digested 

 is very likely not true." Yes, I should 

 think so ; and it is a thousand times 

 more safe— more in accordance with 

 the evidence, with reason and common 

 observation — to say that it is not digested 

 at all in the meaning of that word when 

 applied to the assimilation of food in 

 the stomach. 



I have before me a fancy little card, 

 "Why Eat Honey," sent me by that 

 shrewd and practical apiarist and 

 honey-dealer, Chas. F. Muth. I quote 

 from it as a sample of good common- 

 sense : 



" What is honey? It is a vegetable 

 product, not made, but gathered from 

 the nectary of flowers, where it is 

 secreted according to the rules of Na- 

 ture's laboratory." These common- 

 sense words whet the appetite for 

 honey, while Prof. Cook's "more or 

 less perfectly digested " vomit makes 

 every fiber of my being recoil. 



I am not able to make the large re- 

 ports of great yields of honey as some 

 bee-keepers seem able to do— perhaps 

 my locality will not admit of it ; but I 

 had one colony of bees to gather and 

 finish up 300 pounds of the dnest qnal- 

 ity of honey in less than 30 days. The 

 density of raw nectar varies so much 

 that it is hard to say how many pounds 

 or raw nectar that 300 pounds of stan- 

 dard honey would represent, but cer- 

 tainly not less than 600 pounds of 

 freshly-gathered nectar. Now I say 

 that it would be as impossible for a 

 colony of bees to digest (assimilate) in 

 their stomachs 600, or even 300. pounds 

 of raw nectar in less than 30 days, as it 

 would be for Prof. Cook to lift himself 

 by the straps of his boots. 



The presence of invert sugar in 

 honey argues nothing. Chemical 

 changes going on during the process of 

 evaporation is sufficient to account for 

 that. 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



BOTANICAL. 



The Polliiialioii and Perfora- 

 tion or Flowers. 



From the Shaiv School of Botany, 

 BY L. n. PAMMEL. 



Last spring my attention was drawn 

 to a rather large and conspicuous clus- 

 ter of I'liloinis tiiliiidsa growing in the 

 13otanic Garden. The species is a na- 

 tive of Europe, and has become spar- 

 ingly naturalized in the United States. 

 The pollination of this species seems 

 not to have been studied, although we I 



have an admirable account of the polli- 

 nation of Phtmnis liusseliana hyljoe-w. 

 Our species, although agreeing in some 

 important particulars with the Syrian, 

 differs in color and some other minor 

 points. 



The structure of the flower clusters 

 is that common to many of the Labi- 

 ates, in that the flowers are borne in 

 cymose axillary clusters; but in this 

 case the clusters are very dense, so that 

 the flowers are not separated readily. 

 The tubular calyx is lOribbed, and 

 terminates rather abruptly in 5 awns. 



A plant when in flower is very con- 

 spicuous not only from the purple color 

 of the corollas, but also from the num- 

 ber of flowers open at the same time, 

 as there are often as many as six or 

 eight in one cyme ; and on going to the 

 flower at any time of the day, one could 

 see several species of Botuhus and a 

 Xijloerqid collecting nectar, besides 

 other small Hymenoptera which prin- 

 cipally collected pollen. The corolla is 

 decidedly two-lipped. The upper lip 

 arches over the lower, and is slightly 

 notched. 



At the time of pollination the upper 

 lip lies close to the lower, so that a 

 humble-bee, on entering the flower, 

 must force the former back, when its 

 thorax is dusted with pollen from the 

 anther cells which lie among the rather 

 numerous hairs in the arched upper 

 lip. This lip readily returns to its 

 former position on account of the elas- 

 ticallyhinged arrangement to be found 

 on its posterior part close to the tube 

 of the corolla. This arrangement is 

 also described by Loew, as occurring in 

 Phloniis liusseliana, ana has been called 

 by him " Charnier Gelank " 



Insects, attracted by the clusters of 

 bright purple flowers, find a landing- 

 place on the lower lip of the corolla, 

 and experience no trouble in finding 

 the nectar, as there is a well marked 

 groove in the middle and larger lobe of 

 this lip, which diminishes in size down- 

 ward till the nectary is reached, where 

 it disappears. In addition to this 

 groove there are some nectar marks : 

 two on the middle lobe (one on each 

 side of the groove), add one on each of 

 the lateral lobes. These nectar marks 

 are colored somewhat deeper than the 

 rest of the corolla, and run to the 

 groove, where they disappear. 



There is an abundance of nectar, 

 secreted from the well-developed nec- 

 tar-gland situated immediately under- 

 neath the pistil, in the form of a fleshy 

 outgrowth arising from the receptacle. 

 This gland is usually somewhat angled, 

 sending up one lobe between each of 



the lobes of the ovary The nectary 



occupies the lower part of the tube of 

 the corolla, which is considerably en- 

 larged above the nectary ; this enlarge- 

 ment is not peculiar to this plant, but 

 is also to be found in others. There is 

 developed at this enlargement a ring of 

 rather stiff hairs, which excludes small 

 insects. The occurrence of a ring of 

 hairs above the nectary is also common 

 to other Labiates 



Poliluatloii by Hiiinble-Bees. 



The flowers of Phtnmis tidierosn. are 

 adapted to pollination by humble-bees, 

 as has been shown, by the elastically 

 hinged arrangement in the upper lip. 



