The Natural History of Selborne 453 



HONEY-DEW. 



JUNE 4, 1783. Fast honey-dews this week. The reason of these 

 seem to be, that in hot days the effluvia of flowers are drawn up by 

 a brisk evaporation, and then in the night fall down with the dews 

 with which they are entangled. 



This clammy substance is very grateful to bees, who gather it 

 with great assiduity, but it is injurious to the trees on which it 

 happens to fall, by stopping the pores of the leaves. The greatest 

 quantity falls in still close weather ; because winds disperse it, and 

 copious dews dilute it, and prevent its ill effects. It falls mostly in 

 hazy warm weather. WHITE. 



MORNING CLOUDS. 



AFTER a bright night and vast dew, the sky usually becomes cloudy 

 by eleven or twelve o'clock in the forenoon, and clear again towards 

 the decline of the day. The reason seems to be, that the dew, 

 drawn up by evaporation, occasions the clouds ; which, towards 

 evening, being no longer rendered buoyant by the warmth of the 

 sun, melt away, and fall down again in dews. If clouds are watched 

 in a still warm evening, they will be seen to melt away and disappear. 

 WHITE. 



DRIPPING WEATHER AFTER DROUGHT. 



No one that has not attended to such matters, and taken down 

 remarks, can be aware how much ten days dripping weather will 

 influence the growth of grass or corn after a severe dry season. 

 This present summer, 1776, yielded a remarkable instance ; for, till 

 the joth of May the fields were burnt up and naked, and the barley 

 not half out of the ground ; but now, June loth, there is an agree- 

 able prospect of plenty. WHITE. 



