N 
NECTAR. —Strictly speaking nectar is 
a cane sugar ( sucrose ) gathered from flow¬ 
ers by bees. It is thickened and trans¬ 
formed by them into honey. (See Honey.) 
Many times has honey been analyzed by 
competent chemists, but very seldom has 
there been an attempt to analyze nectar, 
owing to the difficulty of securing a suf¬ 
ficient quantity for experimental purposes. 
The only satisfactory experiments of the 
kind which have yet appeared are those of 
Prof. Planta, of the University of Zurich, 
Switzerland, who was not only one of the 
best chemists in Europe, but also a com¬ 
petent beekeeper besides. 
It will be noted he experimented with 
the nectar of two American plants, Agave 
americana (century plant) and Bignonia 
radicans (trumpet creeper). The former 
is a prodigious yielder of honey, far ex¬ 
celling any plant we know of in the North, 
and excelled only by some tropical trees 
such as Protea millifera, Hakeas, and Leu- 
codedendron , and perhaps - others not yet 
known. It grows in the southwest part of 
the United States, and is common in Mex¬ 
ico. 
Several translations of Dr. Planta’s arti¬ 
cle on nectar analysis have appeared, and 
we give one which we deem best for our 
purpose. 
In the Zeitschrift fuer Physiologisclie 
Chemie, Band X., Heft 3, Hr. A. de Planta 
describes his researches on the chemical 
composition of some of the nectars in plants. 
He says it was a great pleasure for him 
during his. researches on the life of bees to 
have established the relation which exists 
betwen nectar and honey, nectar serving 
for the preparation of honey. There was a 
great difficulty in getting a sufficient quan¬ 
tity of nectar, as plants yield it usually in 
small quantities, but there are some excep¬ 
tions. Among these are Protea mellifera, 
Hoya carnosa and Taco a radicans, or 
trumpet creeper, which contains such large 
quantities of nectar that it is easily col¬ 
lected. Thunberg says in his ‘'Flora Car- 
“pensis ” of Protea mellifera (Zuykerbosches 
Zuykerboom, Tulpboom) that it flowers in 
autumn; that is to say, in March and the 
following months. The flowers are often 
half filled with watery honey which fur¬ 
nishes an excellent syrup after it has been 
filtered to rid it of insects and impurities, 
and slightly evaporated by gentle heat. 
This syrup is an article of commerce at 
Cape Town. Two bottles of it were pro¬ 
duced, the specific gravities being 1.375 and 
1.372. It has a slight acid reaction i but 
contained no albuminoids or nitrogenous 
matter. It contained 73.17 .per cent solids, 
10.08 being glucose and 1.31 per cent cane 
sugar. By glucose is meant a mixture of 
crystallizable grape sugar (dextrose) and 
uncrystallizable grape sugar (levulose), 
both having a similar chemical composi¬ 
tion. This glucose may already be formed 
in the nectar by the action of the ferments 
it contains upon the cane sugar, transform¬ 
ing it into glucose; and this inversion can 
be continued in new honeys, owing to the 
action (which he had already demonstrated 
in 1879) of the saliva of bees which also 
transforms cane sugar into glucose. 
Grape sugar from the syrup was also ob¬ 
tained in a crystallized form. No trace of 
formic acid could be detected in the syrup, 
tho quantities of pollen were found in sus¬ 
pension, determined by Professor C. Cramer 
to be that of Protea mellifera, testifying to 
its genuineness. 
Wishing to compare this with fresh nec¬ 
tar, he succeeded, after great difficulty, in 
getting three bottles. The specific gravity 
was 1.078, 1.079, and 1.077. These contained 
17.66 per cent of solids, of which 17.06 was 
grape sugar. They contained no cane sugar. 
There was not the least trace of formic acid. 
A comparison of the two shows that the dif¬ 
ference was due only to the extra quantity 
of water contained in the fresh nectar. 
Besides these he also examined the nec¬ 
tars of Hoya carnosa and Bignonia radicans, 
both in the fresh and evaporated states. The 
following table gives the results: 
Sugar 
Cane 
Grape 
Nectar of 
sugar 
sugar 
Protea mellifera, fresh 
17.06 
17.06 
Protea mellifera, dry 
96.60 
96.60 
Hoya carnosa, fresh 
40.64 
35.65 
4.99 
Hoya carnosa, dry 
99.68 
87.44 
12.24 
Bignonia radicans, fresh 15.27 
.43 
14.84 
Bignonia radicans, dry 
99.85 
2.85 
97.00 
Dr. de Planta has also made aqueous ex¬ 
tracts of various flowers, among others those 
of Rhododendron hirsutum and Onobrychis 
