ON  HONEY,  ITS  FORMATION  AND  CHANGES. 
531 
These  singular  insects  choose  many  plants  preferably  to  others, 
and,  what  is  stranger  still,  a  bee  only  attacks  the  same  kind  of 
flower  in  a  garden  at  each  visit,  although  surrounded  by  hun- 
dreds of  others.  This  may  be  easily  proved  by  examining  a  bee 
on  its  return  to  the  hive,  when  the  pollen  will  be  seen  to  be  all 
of  one  kind.  The  plants  that  have  been  noted  as  being  the 
greatest  favorites  are — 
Borago  officinalis. 
Brassica  campestris. 
Colchicum  autumnale. 
Erica  cinerea. 
E.  tetralix. 
Cheiranthus  Cheiri. 
Althaea  rosea. 
Reseda  lutea. 
Ribes  Grossularia. 
Rosmarinus  officinalis. 
Tilia  europsea. 
Corylus  Avellana. 
Ribes  nigrum. 
Ulex  europgeus. 
Lonicera  Periclymenum. 
besides  innumerable  others. 
The  local  flora  has  the  greatest  possible  influence  on  the  taste, 
color,  and  other  qualities  of  the  honey  of  the  neighborhood.  For 
instance,  that  from  the  sandy  districts  of  Worcestershire  and 
Salisbury  Plain  has  a  rich  golden  color,  while  that  from  Wales 
and  the  suburbs  of  Bristol  has  a  dark,  dirty-brown  color,  and 
coarse  taste. 
On  examining  the  sap  of  many  immature  flowers,  it  was  found 
to  give  a  distinctly  bluish  color  with  iodine,  showing  the  presence 
of  starch.  After  the  lapse  of  twenty-four  hours,  the  sap  was 
sweetish,  and  iodine  now  only  gave  a  dirty  greenish-brown  color. 
The  highest  degree  of  sweetness  was  just  when  the  flower  fully 
expanded. 
The  next  step  was  to  find  out  what  the  sweet  matter  was.  The 
part  of  the  petal  or  disk,  according  to  the  flower,  was  sliced, 
macerated  for  a  short  time  in  a  little  cold  distilled  water.  The 
Echium  vulgare. 
Thymus  Serpyllum. 
Rubus  Idaeus. 
R.  csesius: 
Rosa  canina. 
R.  rubiginosa. 
R.  arvensis. 
Sarothamnus  scoparius. 
Melilotus  officinalis. 
Crataegus  Oxyacantha. 
Salix  (various). 
Polygonum. 
Menyanthes  trifoliata. 
Trifolium  repens. 
T.  pratense. 
