300 AUSTRALASIAN 
the plant, but isin fact an excrement, thrown off as superfluous, 
which, if not collected by the bee and by its means made 
available for the use of man, would either be devoured by 
other insects, which do not store honey, or be resolved into its 
original elements and dissipated in the air. 
The foregoing statements can be supported by reference to 
authorities which can leave no doubt as to their correctness, 
namely, Sir Humphrey Davy in his “ Elements of Agricultural 
Chemistry,” written more than fifty years ago, and Professor 
Liebig in his “ Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and 
Physiology,” written some ten years later, and the English 
version of which is edited by Dr. Lyon Playfair and Professor 
Gregory. These works, which may be said to form the foun- 
dation of a rational system of agriculture, were written with 
that object alone in view, and the passages about to be quoted 
were not intended to support any theory in favour of bee culture 
or otherwise ; they deal simply with scientific truths which the 
layman can safely follow and accept as true upon such unde- 
niable authority, although he may be incapable himself of 
following up the processes which have led to their discovery or 
which prove their correctness. 
SACCHARINE MATTER OF PLANTS NOT DERIVED FROM THE 
SOIL. 
Liebig, when describing the chemical processes connected 
with the nutrition of plants, informs us (at page 4*) that— 
‘* There are two great classes into which all vegetable products may 
be arranged. The first of these contain nitrogen; in the last this 
element is absent. The compounds destitute of nitrogen may he 
divided into those in which oxygen form a constituent (starch, lig- 
nine, &c.), and those into which it does not enter (oils of turpentine 
and lemon, &c.).” 
And at page 141 that 
‘“‘ Sugar and starch do not contain nitrogen ; they exist in the plants 
in a free state, and are never combined with salts or with alkaline bases 
They are compounds formed from the carbon of the carbonic acid and 
the elements of water (oxygen and hydrogen),” 
* The edition to which reference is made is the fourth, published 1847. 
\ 
