AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 27 



While lying in the nectaries of blossoms, and being 

 collected by the bee, or afterwards when being stored 

 in the honey-comb, it may by accident take up some 

 particles of pollen, which will account for the fact that 

 minute grains of that substance are generally discover- 

 able in honey when examined with the microscope. In 

 its passage through the honey-sac of the bee, and in 

 the act of being stored in the cells of the comb, the raw 

 juice goes through a process of ripening, which deprives 

 it of much of its superfluous watery particles (see 

 Chapter XIII.), and while in the honey-sac it is also 

 probably in some way chemically affected by the juices 

 from the salivary glands of the bee. 



When, by evaporation, the proportion of moisture is 

 reduced to a certain extent, and the honey becomes 

 what we term " ripe," it is sealed in the cells by the 

 worker bees, just as the preserves of a careful house- 

 keeper are closed up so as to save them from the action 

 of the oxygen in the atmosphere. The honey in this 

 ripened state is nearly the same, in point of chemical 

 composition, as ordinary sugar; but it owes its perfume 

 and flavour apparently to the same volatile oils which 

 attracted the insects to the flowers from which it is 

 derived, and that it is indeed something very different 

 from common sugar is sufficiently clear to everyone. 



HONEY DEW. 



There is a saccharine matter sometimes gathered in 

 considerable quantities by bees in countries of the 

 Northern Hemisphere termed " honey dew." It is quite 

 distinct from, and much inferior to, ordinary honey. 

 Considerable difference of opinion has at various times 

 been expressed as to its origin, some holding that it is 

 entirely a vegetable product, while others claim that 

 the larger proportion is an excretion from certain 

 insects. Dr. E. F. Phillips, who has had special oppor- 

 tunities for studying the matter, says : — 



" Honey dew is a g-eneral term, including- sweet sub- 

 stances from several sources. There are many plants which 

 have nectaries outside the flower which secrete honey dew 



