Honey, its Origin and Adulteration. 93 



ing the discharge of the pollen. He divides the stamen into 

 four parts, which, reckoning from below upwards, are — 1, the 

 stalk, 2, nectary, 3, anther, 4, the limb, and makes out the 

 nectary to be a filament carrying either secreting hairs, or 

 glands, or a nectariferous horn. The author was unable to 

 make out this subdivision satisfactorily. 



The plants which in England are most attractive to bees 

 are : — 



Mignonette. 



Rosemary. 



Gooseberry. 



Currant. 



Lime. 



Lemon Thyme. 



Hazel. 



Berberry. 



Heath. 



Wallflower. 



Buckwheat. 



Turnip. 



Hollyhock. 



Clover. 



Winter Aconite 



Raspberry. 



Willow. 



Osier. 



Broom. 



Furze. 



Borage, etc. 



On examining an immature blossom of a wallflower, the 

 vessels will be filled with an amylaceous fluid, which gives a 

 distinct blue with iodine. After the lapse of from twenty-four 

 to forty-eight hours, the flower having become much more ex- 

 panded, and the stamens more mature, the fluid on being again 

 tested will have a sweet taste, and give a dirty bluish-brown 

 instead of a blue with iodine. 



On cutting out the disks of several ripe specimens of wall- 

 flower, the author obtained a syrupy, clear, colourless fluid. 

 This was mixed with a small quantity of distilled water, treated 

 with lime and carbonic acid in the usual way, and filtered. 

 The filtrate was then concentrated, and allowed to crystallize 

 spontaneously on a glass slip. The result was a beautiful 

 regular crop of crystals of cane-sugar, agreeing in their goniome- 

 trical measurements with that substance. 



As the flower became more mature, the saccharine fluid was 

 acted upon by the vegetable acids more and more, until at 

 length when the ovary being fertilized, and the flower dead, 

 a last examination showed the saccharine residue on the withered 

 disk to be nearly all grape-sugar, almost incapable of being 

 fairly crystallized. 



The bee visiting the flowers when in their prime, inserts 

 its ligula into the blossom, and laps up the greater portion of 

 the liquid sugar, which after passing through the oesophagus 

 is deposited in the honey sac. It here comes in contact with 

 the secreting glands, which emit an acid which the author's 

 experiments showed to be identical with formic acid. This it 

 is which doubtless causes the peculiar tingling sensation at the 

 back of the throat when much honey has been swallowed, and 

 which is more perceptible to some than others. The bee after 

 its arrival at the hive empties the contents of the honey sac 

 into the comb, where it remains until the store of honey is 

 taken. When separated from the comb, the purest honey is a 



