Nature of Honey. 145 



CHAPTER TV. 



Products of Bees; Their Origin and Func- 

 tion. 



Among all insects, bees stand first in the variety of the 

 useful products which they give us, and, next to the silk- 

 moths, in the importance of these products. They seem 

 the more remarkable and imjjortant, in that so few^ insects 

 yield articles of commercial value. True, the cochineal 

 insect, a species of bark-louse, gives us an important color- 

 ing material; the lac insect, of the same family, gives us 

 the important element of our best glue — shellac ; the blis- 

 ter-beetles afford an article prized by the physician, while 

 we are indebted to one of the gall-flies for a valuable ele- 

 ment of ink; but the honey-bee affords not only a delicious 

 article of food, but also another article of no mean com- 

 mercial rank, namely, wax. We will proceed to examine 

 the various products which come from bees. 



HONEY. 



Of course the first product of bees, not only to attract 

 attention but also in importance, is honey. And what is 

 hone}' ? It is digested nectar, a sweet neutral substance 

 gathered from the flowers. This nectar contains much 

 water, though the amount is very variable, a mixture of 

 several kinds of sugar and a small amount of nitrogenous 

 matter in the form of pollen. Nectar is peculiar in the 

 large amount of sucrose or cane sugar which it contains. 

 Often there is nearly or quite as much of this as of all the 

 other sugars. We cannot therefore give the composition 

 of honey. It will be as various as the flowers from which 

 it is gathered. Again the thoroughness of the digestion 

 will affect the composition of honey. This digestion is 

 doubtless accomplished through the aid of the saliva — that 

 from the racemose glands of the head and thorax (Fig. 38, 

 l)_^ c) — aided possibly by the acid secretion of the stomach. 



The composition of honey is of course very varied. Thus 

 analyses give water all the way from 15 to 30 percent. 



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