ON THE WEATHER. 181 



ground beneath, and produces what is called the honey-dew, but that this 

 happens only for a short time, as a week or two about Midsummer, during 

 the production of the new buds, and that the black, powdery material on 

 the upper surface of the leaves is the excrement of the Aphides, like the 

 black, bitter powder in the nut-shell, which is the excrement of the Gur- 

 culio nucum." 



Others again consider it an exudation from the plant itself. On this 

 subject says Mr. Curtis, "If it exuded from the plant, it would appear on 

 all the leaves generally and uniformly; whereas its appearance is extremely 

 irregular, some having none of it, and others being covered with it but 

 partially." Honey-dew never exists, as has already been shewn, but where 

 there are Aphides, and the black substance which Dr. Darwin and others 

 consider as the excrement of the Aphides, is the actual excrement (in the 

 shape of honey- dew) of these insects, only dried by the powerful effects 

 of the sun and air, giving the surface of the leaves or bark, or whatever 

 it has fallen upon, a sooty appearance. It looks like, and is often mistaken 

 for, a kind of black mildew. 



Decemher, 1855. (To he continued.) 



ON THE WEATHER. 



Thkrk is a subject which is ever in men's mouths, but seldom flows 

 from their pens, but which, it appears to me, might be made the vehicle 

 of much amusive instruction, and shew us results which, perhaps, we had 

 no idea of. Men's memories are but fallacious guides, and although light 

 and darkness, heat and cold, dry and wet, dullness and sunshine are per- 

 petually before us, even at a week's end, unless we keep a strict account, 

 we can no more tell what weather we have had, than we can remember 

 things that occurred ar twelvemonth since. 1 was drawn into this train of 

 thought by seeing Mr. Clapham's letter upon the inclination of trees, and 

 which I thought I could account for by atmospheric causes, and this led 

 me to look back many years through a series of old journals, which I 

 have kept, in spite of the ridicule of my friends and relatives, ever since 

 1838, and I must say that I do not regret having done so; for not only 

 have I found them sometimes eminently useful, but of pleasant reference 

 to days gone by, chequered as they must be by the tinges of joy and sorrow.* 



I am aware that a record of thoughts and feelings, as well as events, 

 might not always be desirable to place at the mercy of the multitude, but 

 what I have sought to do is this, to set down as notes only what sort 



* I quite agree with these observations, both as to our specdj^ forgetfulness of the past 

 state of the weather without a "time table" of it, and also as to the usefulness of such a 

 record, both in the way indicated, and in other ways also. I kept a diary of the weather 

 for some years myself. — F. 0. Mohris. 



