CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 239 



Honey in flowers. — It appears to be a doubt what use the 

 honey of flowers is calculated to serve. Dr. Darwin has supposed, that 

 the nectarious juice may be the food or nourishment of the pistillum 

 and stamina. Sketches 'of the Physiology of Vegetable Life, p. 84. 

 In this work the theory is embraced, but I think it may not be pre- 

 sumptuous to throw out a further conjecture on this curious subject ; 

 namely, that the nectarious juice may supply the pollen itself, as 

 that substance is totally different from any other part of the plant, 

 and may be produced by evaporation from the more solid parts of the 

 honey, whilst the more glutinous and liquid may serve to produce 

 that unctuous moisture which always pervades the stigma. 



I think this curious fact might be ascertained by divesting the 

 flower of the honey by perforating the nectarium with a needle, by 

 which orifice the nectarious juice would exude, and the flower be less 

 injured than by excision. It would then be discovered whether there 

 was any pollen in the antherse, or any moisture on the stigma. I 

 should think this experiment ought to be performed immediately on 

 the corolla, at which period the nectary begins to secrete its honey. 



In support of the above theory, I performed the following dissection 

 on a Canterbury Bell (Campanula hortensis.) Having divided the 

 whole flower by a vertical section, I discovered a projecting rib on the 

 outside of the nectary, running immediately from its bottom to the base 

 of each filament, which I should conceive to be the vessel by which the 

 farinaceous part of the honey is taken up and conveyed, by capillary 

 attraction, through the filament to the antheca. Besides this, on 

 dividing the pistil I discovered a number of white capillary vessels, 

 filled with a quantity of glutinous, sweet, and colourless liquid. In 

 the rib of the nectary which runs to the filament, a thin transparent 

 line was clearly visible, which is probably the vessel which supplies the 

 antheca. 



From the circumstances it appears probable that the pollen of flowers 

 is the finer parts of the honey, which, evaporating by the heat of the 

 sun, is reduced to the state of farina. — E. G. Ballard. 



Islington, April 5th, 1833. 



Instance of the carrion crow pairing with the hooded 

 crow. — It seems to be an undecided question among naturalists,whether 

 the carrion crow, (Corvus corone) and the hooded crow (orvus Ccornix) 

 ever pair together. For four successive years I had opportunities of 

 witnessing the pairing of these two species, on some large beech trees 

 which surrounded my house in Forfarshire. They never reoccupied 



