BEE MANUAL. 65 



second, that obtained by the action of an acid upon cane sugar, and 

 consisting, as does genuine honey, of water, dextro and levogluoose ; 

 and third, the product of the action of acid upon starch, called corn 

 syrup. I have never met with any samples of the first of these three 

 classes, and I doubt whether any such article can now-a-days be found, 

 although in older works on adulteration their occurrence is asserted. 

 The second kind is also very rare, but yet it exists ; but the third, 

 starch syrup, is the main substitute and adulterant used at the 

 present time. " 



After describing the characteristics of the first two sorts of 

 adulteration, and the mode of detecting them, he goes on to 

 the third sort, which is the most important, as being the most 

 likely to be met with : — 



"Corn or starch-syrup, lastly, differs in almost every respect from 

 the genuine product. It throws down abundant precipitates with 

 lead or barium solutions, often with alcohol ; it does not ferment com- 

 pletely, but leaves about one-fifth or one-sixth of its weight as 

 unfermentable, gummy residue, and, examined by the polariscope, 

 turns the ray of light powerfully to the right. 



" These few simple tests readily enable us to distinguish these pro- 

 ducts from each other, and from honey. Examined with the 

 microscope they all are found to be devoid of pollen ; and, in conse- 

 quence, are without the delicate aroma, the bouquet, which is 

 inseparable from the product of the flower and the bee. 



"From the very variable amount of pollen granules met with in 

 different honeys — some samples which I have examined containing 

 enormous numbers, others but very few — there appears to be a con- 

 siderable difference in the degree of cleanliness with which bees store 

 the honey. Some flowers yield an infinitely larger number of pollen 

 granules than others, but the importation of the latter to a greater or 

 less extent into the honey itself appears to me to depend mainly upon 

 the bee itself." 



The inference to be drawn from the latter part of this quota- 

 tion, that honey owes its flavour and bouquet to the pollen 

 grains which may chance to be mixed with it, is one, the 

 correctness of which appears to us to be more than doubtful. 



HONEY DEW. 



Bees sometimes gather a quantity of saccharine liquids found 

 on the leaves or branches of trees and other plants, or dropping 

 from them on to the ground. This liquid is generally called 

 honey-dew; but there appears to be a great diversity of opinion 

 amongst otherwise well-informed writers, as to its nature and 

 origin, some even describing it as "a dew that falls at night, 



