S2 Mr, CuRTis's 05Jervaiions on Aphides, 



procefTcs ii fed with other faccharine juices, might be converted into 

 the choicefl ftigar or fugar-candy. It is a fadl alio, which appears 

 worthy of noticing here, that, though the wafps are ib partial lo 

 this food, the bees appear totally to difregard it. 



Jn the height of fummer, when the weather is hot and dry, and 

 Aph'des are mofl: abnndant, the foliage of trees and plants (more 

 efpecially in fome years than othcis) is found covered with, and 

 rendered gloffy by, a fv/eet clammy fubftance, known to perfons re- 

 iident in the country by the name of honey-dew : they regard it as 

 a fwcet fiibftance falling from the atmofphere, as its name implies. 



The iVeetnefs of this excremcntitious fubflance, the gloffy ap- 

 pearance it gave to the leaves it fell upon, and the fwarms of infects 

 this matter attracted, firft led me to imagine that the honey-dew 

 of plants was no other than this fecretion, which further obferva- 

 tion has fince fully confirmed. Others have confidered it as an ex- 

 udation proceeding from the plant itfelf. Of the former opinion 

 we find the Rev, Gilbert White, one of the latcft writers on natural 

 hiftory that has noticed this ful:^ecl: *. -^^ *' v- * 



But that it neither falls from the atmofphere, nor iffues from the 

 plant itfelf, is eafily dcmonfliattd. If it fell from the atmofphere, 

 it would cover ^veiy thing on which it fell indifcriminately, whereas 

 we never find it but on certain living plants and trees. We find it 

 alfo on plants in ftoves and green-houfes covered with glafs. If it 

 exuded from the plant, it would appear on all the leaves generally 



* *' June 4th, \-}%i- Vaft hone^-dews this week. The reafon of thefe feenis to be, 

 that in hot days the eSluvla of flowers are drawn up by a briik evaporation, and then in 

 the night fair down with the dews, with which they are entangled. 



"This clammy fubdanee is very grateful to bees, who gather it with great afllcluitY ', 

 bat il is injurious to the trees on which it happens to fall, by Hopping the pores of the 

 kaves. The greateft quantity falls in flill, clofe weather; becaufe winds difperfe it, and 

 copious dews dilute it, and prevent its ill efFcOs. It falls moflly in hazy, warm weather." 

 te* fybiu's Naiuraliff^s CaUnditr, />. 144. - ■ 



and 



