ON DIFFERENT SPECIES OF StJGAR. gQ^ 



name of immediate products, frequently modifies them by getables vari- 



slight shades, and varies each in so many different species. 



Thus starch, gum, resin, oil, tannin, extractive, &c., while 



they retain the principal characters of the genus, to which 



they give their names, differ in certain respects, and. thus 



give rise to the species which analysis- has discovered. 



Sugar too has its species, and of these I purpose first to Sugar has its 

 speak, as the ideas with which they will furnish us are ne- xhese differ 

 cessary to understand what is to be said respecting the su- "^ consistency, 

 gar of grapes. If we compare these species with respect to 

 hardness or consistency, we shall find a striking difference 

 in this respect. We see, that the product of the sugar cane 

 is dry, brittle, and easily crystallized ; while the driest 

 manna softens v/ith a slight heat, and sticks to the finger 

 that presses it. We find too, that the syrupy product which 

 we call mucoso-saccarine is a third species, difFering from 

 the former in uniting the viscosity of a mucilage to the pro- 

 perty of retaining a softness that no drying can destroy. 



The honey, that bees collect from plants, and in which it Honey a com- 

 is impossible not to recognise one of their immediate pro- species. 

 ducts, will give us an instance of two species combined. 

 That it frequently varies in consistence is well known; and 

 k-has been long presumed, that it must contain a portion of 

 crystal lizable sugar, which has even been affirmed, though 

 never proved: but a» this conjecture has been confirmed by 

 the experiments I have lately made, I shall proceed to re- 

 late them. 



The honey collected at Madrid on the heights of Flonda Yellow honey. 

 is yellow. It has the transparency and tenacity of a turpen- 

 tine to such a degree, that we may justly eay it is to solid 

 sugar the same thing as a balsam is to a resin. Alcohol 

 dissolves it almost entirely: a few particles of wax separate 

 from it, and it afterward deposits a small portion of a vis- 

 cous substance, which is soluble in water, precipitable by 

 alcohol, and without any particular taste. This is a true 

 gu:n. The white honeys, of which 1 shall soon speak, like- 

 wise contain a little. 



The colour of the former is certainly owing to an extrac- Owes its co- 

 tive principle, which cannot differ much from that of vege- jj^g 

 tables, for the muriate of tin precipitates it in a yellowish 

 X 2 lake 



