242 EFFECT OF SEASONS 



cherry and the plum, for the same purpose, and their 

 presence brought the bat, so that some places were ani- 

 mated by the flitting about of these creatures. Aphides 

 abounded upon all the young sprays. ^ 



June 17, 1828. Abundance of rain has fallen during 

 the preceding night, and in the morning of this day, 

 about two o'clock, the sun broke out, the air becoming 

 hot and heavy. I was soon surprised by observing mul- 

 titudes of hive-bees buzzing and crawling about the 

 foliage and young shoots of my laurel bushes (prunus 

 laurocerasus), and feeding upon some sweet matter 

 lodged on them; the blossoms had long before fallen 

 off : no aphides frequent this plant, nor were there any 

 trees near them from whence any sweet matter might 

 have fallen ; we have no honey-dew upon our fruit-trees, 

 and an aphis is scarcely to be found. Has any saccha- 

 rine matter fallen, or been emitted by the plant to en- 

 tice these insects to harbor about them ? It clearly ap- 

 pears that honey-dews arise from two causes; that a 

 large portion of it is the discharges from insects of the 

 genus aphis, has long since been manifested by the 

 Abbe Sauvages, Mr. Curtis, and others : insects dis- 

 charge in all days and hours during the warm months 

 of the year. But there is another kind which we find 

 only at particular times, and in certain states of the at- 

 mosphere, lodged on certain plants during the night in 

 such quantities as to hang occasionally in drops from 

 the points of the leaves. The foliage of the oak is at 

 times lucid with this sweet liquor, and this the bees 

 are soon acquainted with, and eagerly collect it, which 

 they only partially do when spread upon the leaves on 

 the wall, the evident discharge of aphides. Some of 

 my neighbors who have hives will occasionally observe, 

 "A heavy honey-dew last night, and the bees are hard 

 at work ; " this cannot proceed from insect discharges. 

 That some foliage may condense any matter that may 

 fall upon it, is not improbable ; or even excrete it from 

 their pores by the impellent power of the air in certain 

 states, is to be conceived ; but all this is conjectural, 

 and our knowledge of the causes which produce these 

 partial honey-dews is yet to be acquired. 



