honey dew is no more nor less than the 

 secretion of tlie very numerous family of 

 the aphidje or plant lice. 



It has also been often observed in Europe, 

 that honey dew dropped from trees in such 

 quantities that it moistened the ground. — 

 The leaves fairly dripped. More than 50 

 years ago, Mr. Ehrenfels, who then had 

 over 1000 colonies, reported that in his pine 

 forests, the honey produced or secreted by 

 the coccus or pine bark louse often dropped 

 from the trees in such quantities that his 

 wood-choppers were wont to sweeten their 

 dinner bread with it. 



Mr. Marshall bases his argument mainly 

 on 3 points, viz : 



1. " It Is never found on all kinds of trees and 

 plants at the same time. 



2. " It is never found on dead leaves or anything 

 dry, except as it has fallen, or been blown from some 

 green vegetation. 



3. "It is always found when vegetation Is in a 

 healthy and growing state." 



1. Of course, it cannot be found on all 

 trees and plants at the same time. The 

 aphidjB family is probably as numerous as 

 that of the spiders, the flies or tlie bugs, 

 who all have their seasons of breeding reg- 

 ulated according to the time of the fullest 

 growth of the particular tree or plant they 

 live on. Do the bugs appear before tbe sap 

 has entered the trees or bushes ? Do we 

 see butterflies before flowers boom ? 



The same with all the aphidse. When 

 their tree or plant is in its riciiest state of 

 sap, they have the condition to multiply, 

 and they do it. When the flow of sap stops, 

 honey dew stops also. When the second 

 sap appears, our lice are there again. The 

 moi'e sap, the more lice ; the less sap, the 

 less lice. When honey is lacking, do not 

 our bees quickly quit breeding? Do they 

 not almost barbariously, like the old Greeks, 

 expose their children to ravenous animals, 

 or to the inclemency of the weather or 

 starvation ? The louse honey, as it might 

 properly be called, only appear in abund- 

 ance when aphidie are abounding. If Mr. 

 Marshall, at the next appearance of honey 

 dew, will more closely investigate, he will 

 either find little, creeping, green lice on the 

 young stems or under side of the leaves, or 

 one of the other species of tbe shell-bark 

 louse on any part of the trees or plants, 

 except on the upper side of the leaves. In 

 investigating, be careful not to overlook the 

 youngest shell-bark lice, as they cainiot be 

 seen l)y the naked eye. The youngest are 

 about the best suckers. 



2. Is rather a wholesale assertion, not at 

 all borne out by the facts. I have lying 

 before me a piece of white paper, bespotted 

 with divers small honey dew drops by some 

 shell-bark lice, which live on a lemon tree, 

 that was raised from a seed, and which 

 stands near me. This little tree is now in 

 its 4th year, and always has some shell- 

 bark lice on it, in spite of the closest search, 

 and the most thorough washing with lye, 

 tobacco juice, &c. After a while, they 

 always appear again, so that, if science 

 generally did not condemn the idea of spon- 

 taneous creation, this might make me 

 believe in it. 



These shell-bark lice, we (my wife, my 

 daughter and myself) are woiit, these 3 

 years, to discover by the honey dew on the 



upper part of the leaves of the lemon tree, 

 which never leaves the room, except for a 

 wash. For the purpose of writing this 

 article to-day, last night I looked at my 

 lemon tree, and saw again divers spots of 

 honey dew. Over one of the spots I fasten- 

 ed a piece of letter paper, which to-day 

 lias several distinct spots of honey dew on 

 it. Mr. Marshall will, I trust, not object to 

 paper, as it has answered better thaii a dry 

 leaf ; as paper taken from a ream could not 

 have old or new honey dew on it before I 

 laid it under the louse. Two young shell- 

 bark lice on an upper leaf, about 2 inches 

 away, in an oblique direction, are the pro- 

 ducers of the spots on the paper. If you 

 wish to find the lice for a certain honey 

 dew, never look straight over it, but in an 

 oblique upper direction. They always 

 eject obliquely, never straight ; and indeed, 

 so sharp that I have often felt the force on 

 my face, which could not have been if that 

 miniature drop merely liad fallen. If you 

 wish to get a proof, spread a few good-sized 

 sheets of paper, over night, under any tree 

 that has honey dew on it. Next moining 

 you will find plenty of dull and shining 

 spots on the paper. Paper will, more or 

 less, soak in honey dew, while green, living 

 leaves will not. 



3. This only proves what I have said 

 under 1. I have no doubt, that Marshall 

 has found honey dew where no insect 

 could be found with a microscope. I have 

 found honey dew on plants fully 10 feet 

 from the tree, on which tlie producers lived. 

 The force of ejection, the smallness of the 

 drops and the current of air may bring it 

 yet farther away. But mark : You never 

 find honey dew under a leaf, while you 

 never find, except as a rare case, shell-bark 

 lice or any aphidse on top of a leaf. If tlie 

 lice are feeding on honey dew, why do they 

 not go on the upper side of the leaves, or do 

 they, from the under side, penetrate the 

 leaves in order to suck the honey on the 

 upper side ? 



Leaves are not destined to exude any 

 fluid. They are organized for the inhala- 

 tion and exlialation of vaporous gasses 

 only. In order to exude any fluid, their 

 cells would have to burst first, which has 

 certainly never been seen yet. Puncture a 

 green leaf as much as you please, you will 

 never see fluid exude. It is a different 

 thing to intercept the flow of sap in a maple 

 tree trunk, or cut a vine or wound a peach 

 tree. 



If in 1862 you had such a mild winter that 

 your pine trees grew, the coccus, or pine 

 tree shell-bark louse could also grow. De- 

 pend on that. I wish we had pine trees 

 around here. My bees would often get a 

 good meal from them in early spring. 



I do not look upon honey dew as an 

 excrement any more than on honey as an 

 excrement, which it certainly is not. 



The aphidie, which live on grapevine, I 

 have often observed with a good magnify- 

 ing glass, when the ants would come, tickle 

 them with their antennse, and my innocent 

 lice would turn up high their abdomen, on 

 the upper end of which are 2 minute, hollow 

 pipes, out of which presently spring 2, 

 very small drops of a crystal fluid, which 

 my ants would greedily lick up. Among 



