Relation ok Bkes to Fucit Culture. 263 



plant also. For commercial purposes tlie mint family pro- 

 duces the finest honey of all, and from the wild sage of 

 Southern California, a plant very nearly allied to our 

 domestic sage, is produced large quantities of honey, rival- 

 ing any other produced in this or, I believe, any other coun- 

 try, surpassing even the justly cele-brated honey of ancient 

 Hymettus, which was produced largely, so fai- as I am able 

 to learn, from the heath family of plants. 



I will not dwell longer upon the differences found in 

 honey from different species of plants. Sufficient has been 

 said to show that it varies with the nature gf the plant that 

 produces it. And I believe that this nectar, usually called 

 a secretion, is an excretion instead — a something that the 

 plant has no further use for and which, in the economy of 

 natm-e, is excreted during the time of bloom by the 

 flower for the purpose of attracting insects and thus secm*- 

 ing healthful fecundation. In some plants we find the 

 blossoms insufficient for ridding the plant of this superflu- 

 ous nectar, which seems to be produced by certain atmos- 

 pheric conditions as well as certain conditions of the soil, 

 and the leaves of the plant take on the extra function 

 of excreting it, and then it is called " honey dew." So 

 abundant is tliis excretion in some countries that people 

 gather it by setting vessels under the ti*ees and shaking 

 them. 



This must not be confounded with the saccharine sub- 

 stance often excreted by the aphides upon the leaves, and 

 <ialled by many " honey dew." 



Any person who has examined trees where this excretion 

 from the leaves is found and seen the substance fchi'own off 



