306 PEINCIPLES OF GAKDENING. [CH. VHI. 



tious matter, sugar, — he even thought it possible 

 that if the ants, wasps, and flies, could be prevented 

 from devouring the honey dew " almost as fast as it 

 was deposited," to collect it in considerable quantities 

 and convert it into the " choicest sugar and sugar 

 candy." The bees, however, he found totally disre- 

 garded the honey dew which came imder his observ- 

 ation. With the opinion of Mr. Curtis I do not 

 agree, any more than does the Abbe Boissier de 

 Sauvages, who, in a memoir read before the Society 

 of Sciences, at Montpelier, gives an account of '* a 

 shower of honey- dew," which he witnessed imder a 

 lime tree in the King's garden at Paris. 



The various successful applications of liquids to 

 plants, in order to prevent the occurrence of the 

 honey-dew, and similar diseases, would seem to 

 indicate that a morbid state of the sap is the chief 

 cause of the honey-dew, for otherwise it would be 

 difficult to explain the reason why the use of a solu- 

 tion of common salt in water, applied to the soil in 

 which a plant is growing, can prevent the appearance 

 of a disease caused by insects. But if we admit that 

 the irregular action of the sap is the cause of the 

 disorder, then we can understand that a portion of 

 salt introduced into the juices of the plant woidd 

 natm'ally have a tendency to correct or vary any 

 morbid tendency, either correcting the too rapid 

 secretion of sap, stimulating it in promoting its 



