32 



SUPERFLUOUS NECTAR EVAPORATED IF NOT TAKEN BY 



INSECTS. 

 That the nutritive quality of tlie plants in any growing crop is not 

 diminished by the abstraction of honey from their blossoms would appear 

 to be evident from the fact already referred to, that those plants have 

 actually thrown ofi the honey from the superfluity of their saccharine 

 juices, as a matter which they could no longer assimilate. There would 

 appear, on the other hand, to be good reason to believe that the plants 

 themselves become daily more nutritive during the period of their giving 

 ofE honey — that is, from the time of flowering to that of ripening their 

 seeds. This is a point upon which, I believe, all agricultural chemists 

 are not quite agreed, but the testimony of Sir H. Davy is very strong 

 in favour of it. In the appendix to his work already quoted, he gives 

 the results of experiments made conjointly by himself and Mr. Sinclair, 

 the gardener to the Duke of Bedford, upon nearly a hundred different 

 varieties of grasses and clovers. These were grown carefully in small 

 plots of ground as nearly as possible equal in size and quality; equal 

 weights of the dried produce of each, cut at different periods, especially 

 at the time of flowering and at that of ripened seeds, were " acted upon 

 by hot water till all their soluble parts were dissolved ; the solution was 

 then evaporated to dryness by a gentle heat in a proper stove, and the 

 matter obtained carefully weighed, and the dry extract, supposed to 

 contain .the nutritive matter of the plants, was sent for chemical 

 analysis." Sir H. Davy adds his opinion that this "mode of deter- 

 mining the nutritive power of grasses is sufficiently accurate for all the 

 purposes of agricultural investigation." Further on he reports, " In 

 comparing the compositions of the soluble products afforded by different 

 crops from the same grass, I found, in all the trials I made, the largest 

 quantity of truly nutritive matter in the crop cut when the seed was 

 ripe, and the least bitter extract and saline matter and the most saccha- 

 rine matter, in proportion to the other ingredients, in the crop cut at the 

 time of flowering." In the instance which he then gives, as an example, 

 the crop cut when the seed had ripened showed 9 per cent, less of sugar, 

 but 18 per cent, more of mucilage and what he terms "truly nutritive 

 matter " than the crop cut at the time of flowering. From this it would 

 follow that during the time a plant is in blossom and throwing off a 

 superfluity of saccharine matter in the shape of honey the assimilation 

 of true nutritive matter in the plant itself is progressing most favourably. 

 In any case it is clear that the honey, being once exuded, may be taken 

 away by bees or any other insects (as it is evidently intended to be 

 taken) without any injury to the plant, by jvhich it certainly cannot be 

 again taken up, but must be evaporated if left exposed to the sun's 

 heat. 



