elaboration does take place in the food with which he had supplied his bees; and that the sugar with which he fed them had precisely the taste and flavour of honey. Our experience, if we may venture to differ in the matter from men so deservedly celebrated for attainments in natural science, leads us, with Hunter and Bonner, to a different conclusion. We have repeatedly tasted the syrup of sugar, which we had seen the bees taking from the feeding-trough, and depositing in the cells, and could never discover the slightest difference in any respect, at least so far as taste and flavour are concerned. Perhaps the liquid was clearer—we sometimes imagined it was—if so, this constituted the only difference.
The secretion of honey depends greatly on the state of the atmosphere. During the prevalence of dry easterly winds, the fields present to the bees nothing but barrenness; their out-door labours are suspended, and but for the already hoarded stores, the brood would be in imminent danger of starvation. But when the weather is moist and sultry, and the air charged with electricity, the circulation of this vegetable fluid is considerably accelerated, and the bees know well how to avail themselves of so favourable a juncture for collecting their treasure. Huber remarks, that the collection is never more abundant nor their operations in wax more active, than when the wind is from the south, the air moist and warm, and a storm approaching. Heat too long protracted, however, and its concomitant drought,—chill rains and a north wind, entirely suspend the elaboration of
