24 



from the nectaries of flowers or as honeydew from the leaves, it no 

 longer constitutes a part of the plant, but is in fact an excrement, 

 thrown off as superfluous, which if not collected by the bee and by 

 its means made available for the use of man would either be 

 devoured by other insects which do not store honey, or be resolved 

 into its original elements and dissipated in the air. 



The foregoing statements can he supported by reference to 

 authorities which can leave no doubt as to their correctness — 

 namely. Sir Humphrey Davy in his " Elements of Agricultural 

 Chemistry," written more than fifty years ago, and Professor Liebig 

 in his " Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology," 

 written some ten years later, and the English version of which is 

 edited by Dr. Lyon Playfair and Professor Gregory. These works, 

 which may be said to form the foiindation of a rational system of 

 agriculture, were written with that object alone in view, and the 

 passages about to be quoted were not intended to support any theory 

 in favour of bee-culture or otherwise ; they deal simply with scientific 

 truths which the layman can safely follow and accept as true upon 

 such undeniable authority, although he may be incapable himself 

 of following up the processes which have led to their discovery or 

 which prove their correctness. 



Saccharine Matter of Plants not derived from the Soil. 

 Liebig, when describing the chemical processes connected with 

 the nutrition of plants, informs us (at page 4*) that — 



There are two great classes into which all vegetable products may 

 be arranged. The first of these contain nitrogen ; in the last this 

 element is absent. The compounds destitute of nitrogen may be divided 

 into those in which oxygen form a constituent (starch, lignine, &c.) and 

 those into which it does not enter (oils of turpentine, lemon, &c.) 



And at page 141 that — 



Sugar and starch do not contain nitrogen ; they exist in the plants 

 in a free state, and are never combined with salts or with alkaline bases. 

 They are compounds formed from the carbon of the carbonic acid and 

 the elements of water (oxygen and hydrogen). 



Sir Humphrey Davy had already stated that, " according to the 

 latest experiments of Gay Lussac and Thenard, sugar consists of 

 4247 per cent, of carbon and 57-23 per cent, of water and its con- 

 stituents." Now, Liebig in several parts of his work shows that 

 the carbon in sugar and all vegetable products is obtained from 

 carbotiic acid in the atmosphere ; and that " plants do not exhaust 

 the carbon of the soil in the normal condition of their growth ; on 

 the contrary, they add to its quantity." 



The edition to which reference is made is the fourth, published 1847. 



