THE FARMER'S MANUAL. 183 



other argument against its being an exudation, un- 

 less it can be proved that the sap of all plants is ho- 

 mogeneous, and this I believe the most hardy dispu- 

 tant will not attempt to do. It is certain that the 

 most credible writers on this subject, men of science 

 and knowledge, have maintained that they have ac- 

 tually witnessed the fall of this honey-dew ; and Mr. 

 Ducarne, one of the most intelligent of those writers, 

 thus expresses himself upon the subject." 



" You know what that honey is which the Bees 

 collect with so much ardour in the flowers, but you 

 do not know, perhaps, that there are two kinds ; one, 

 which is the real honey, is a juice of the earth, which, 

 proceeding from the plants by transpiration, is col- 

 lected at the bottom of the nectarium of the flowers, 

 and is thickened afterwards ; it is, in other words, a 

 digested and refined sap in the tribes of plants ; the 

 other, which is called the honey-dew, is an effect of 

 the air, or a species of gluey dew, which falls earlier 

 or later, but generally during the dog-days. This 

 dew, lights upon the flowers and leaves of plants and 

 trees; but the heat operating upon it, coagulates and 

 thickens it, whilst, on the other hand, the honey 

 which falls on the flowers, is preserved a much longer 

 time, it is said that an abundance of this dew ren- 

 ders the Bees idle, and makes them careless of col- 

 lecting the common honey from the nectarium of the 

 flowers. 1 however, never saw them collect it, but 

 upon the flowers. One great disadvantage, there- 

 fore, of this honey-dew is, that if the season be fog- 

 gy and moist, and especially if attended with small 

 rain, this rain, or the too great humidity of the air, 

 corrupts it, and forms a composition very inferior to 

 the honey of the first species, or to that which has 

 not undergone this adulteration. Those persons who 

 have not viewed the honey-dew fall, as I have done, 

 assert, that it is nothing more than the juice, or sap 

 of the plants, which, in hot weather, experiences per- 

 hjips a greater fermentation, by which it is forced 



