170 
NATURE NOTES 
402. Tasmanian Jottings: Intoxicated Bees.— In some English 
periodical not long ago I noticed a paragraph concerning honey-bees becoming 
intoxicated with excess of sweets in certain flowers, and lying there unable to 
move. There is in Tasmania a little native bee, black, with grey bands and 
greyish legs, which appears to make a home by burrowing in the soil. This 
little hymenopter is fond of visiting the flowers both of the introduced Dande- 
lion ( Taraxacum officinale), and ot the Cat’s- Ear (Hypocharis radicala), which 
latter has spread so rapidly since its introduction, that hundreds of acres of 
grass land are yellow during the summer with its flowers. One spring day 
I noticed three of the native bees in Hypochreris flowers, two packed together 
in one blossom, the other alone in a second flower, but all so absorbed in their 
feast, or so intoxicated thereby, that they took no notice when touched, and 
it was only after being removed from the blooms and held in the hand that 
they could be induced to fly. During the week following, others of the same 
species were found in Dandelion flowers in a similarly stupefied condition. 
Richard Jefferies says of wasps: “If they find something sweet and tempting 
they stick to it and swill till they' fall senseless to the ground.” He found them 
silting round apertures in the trunk of a pear-tree, from which sap was slowly 
exuding, and “ to this the wasps came and sipped until they could sip no more.” 
In this connection it is interesting to note that a correspondent of the A Mel- 
bourne Argus has recently observed the same intoxication in birds ; he says : “I 
have noticed a peculiar thing with regard to Minahs during the fruit period, and 
it is the fact that many' of them become quite stupid, and seem to lose the power 
of flight to a great extent.” On this is commented : “ When Honey-Eaters get a 
surfeit of honey they become stupefied, and often die. The rich juices of ripe, 
soft-fleshed fruits may produce the same effect in other birds.” 
403. Spring Flowers. — By taking a ramble over the plains during the 
spring month of October, many interesting plants may be found in bloom. A 
shrub with trifoliate leaves and yellow, pea-like blossoms, has smooth reddish 
bark, and its branches are slender and inclined to droop : the flowers are marked 
at the entrance with little reddish streaks to attract insects. This is called the 
Clover-Tree ( Goodia latifolia Sal.). Another small leguminous shrub has pin- 
nate leaves and purple flowers, and is popularly known as Native Indigo (Indigo- 
fera australis Willd.). Two slender-stemmed plants with very sweet-scented, 
open, purplish blooms are the Tetrathecas (T. pilosa and glandulosa Lab.). They 
grow in great profusion bn the poor sandy land, which, indeed, produces the best 
of our wild flowers. Another plant, probably an Oxalis, with trifoliate leaves and 
pleasant-smelling yellow flow'ers, was also found in the same locality, and several 
orchids, including the yellow “ Butterfly ” (Diuris sulphurea Br.), the “ Spider ” 
( Caladenia pulcherrima Muell.), and a small pink one. A most extraordinary 
orchid is the “Native Potato” (Gastrodia sesamoides Br.), which has been found 
once or twice in bloom beside the bush-road. The tubers much resemble the 
edible potato, but are very acrid and unpleasant to the taste : they are found 
parasitic upon the decaying root of a stringy-bark tree ( Eucalyptus obliqua 
L’Her. ). A tall, brown, leafless stem is sent up, the only approach to leaves being 
a few small close-fitting scales at intervals up the stem : at the summit are borne 
rather large bells, brown outside, white within. The prevailing brown tint, and 
utter absence of anything green, combined with its large size, give this orchid 
quite a weird appearance, when one comes suddenly upon it in the bush solitudes. 
, H. Stuart Dove. 
404. Honey-Dew. —No. 388. The reason why “ the glaze occurs on the 
upper surface of the uppermost leaves of trees not overhung by others, or on the 
upper surface of leaves on long sprays projecting beyond the rest of the tree,” is 
probably this. At certain times of its existence the aphis becomes a winged 
insect, and may be seen on any part of the tree. It ejects honey-dew as it flies, 
but not in the same quantity as when it is wingless. It grows wings when hard 
up for food and when its food plant has begun to mature, or is not sufficiently 
tender and juicy to meet its requirements. Edmund Thomas Daubeny. 
405. I beg to give you the result of my observations of honey-dew for this 
year. The spring was bitterly cold with some frosty nights, which damaged the 
crops of fruit, especially of plums. Afterwards, we had some very hot days, the 
