84 The Honey-Makers 



of a bee, even after having been there an hour or more, 

 often has no odor or flavor of honey. This is true, not 

 only of a bee kept in confinement and fed upon sugar 

 syrup, but of bees gathering nectar in the fields. But 

 after the honey has been stored in the hive redolent of 

 bees it nearly always has the characteristic honey flavor 

 and fragrance. 



Everything about a bee smells of honey ; even the poison 

 of the sting, though unpleasantly strong, suggests it. 



Is not this the " race-odor " of the bee? 



Every creature has its own peculiar race-odor, by which, 

 as we know, it is often discovered by others of its kind. 



Plants too have their race-odor by which we distinguish 

 a lily from a rose. 



Fortunately for us the honey-maker is an animated blos- 

 som that distils a delightful fragrance. 



Of course a part of the honey gathered is consumed by 

 the bee itself and this passes with the pollen into the true 

 stomach where it is digested and then assimilated. 



The waste is always ejected from the body of the workers 

 outside the hive during flight. 



This fact was noted by the ancients, and is another cause 

 of the bee's reputation for purity and cleanliness. This is 

 not the result of volition on the part of the bee, however, 

 as the structure of the worker is such that in a state of 

 health the excrementitious matter cannot be voided except- 

 ing in the act of flight. 



Honey from all time has been esteemed for its curative 

 properties, and is to-day valued for coughs and as Butler 

 says, " cleareth the obstructions of the body." 



Moffett recommends giving infants honey for " breeding 

 teeth," and a modern writer says, — 



" Honey promotes the excretions and dissolves the gluti- 

 nous and starchy impedimenta of the body." 



