492 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



HONEYDEW 10 . 



JUNE 4, 1783. Vast honeydews this week. The 

 reason of these seems 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. 



MORNING CLOUDS. 



AFTER a bright night and vast dew, the sky usually 

 becomes cloudy by eleven or twelve o'clock in the fore- 

 noon, 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 11 . 



10 Honeydews are owing to a cause very different from that to which 

 they are here attributed : the remarks on them, but that Gilbert White 

 regarded them as derived from the atmosphere, ought rather to be placed 

 under the head of entomological than of meteorological observations. In 

 the notes on page 396 their true nature is explained. E. T. B. 



11 During the last summer, as well as in former seasons, I have very 

 frequently remarked that when the sky was beautifully streaked with the 

 wane clouds, variously denominated mare's-tail and wind reels (Cirro- 

 stratus, HOWARD), rain almost to a certainty followed within twelve 

 hours ; and hence when the firmament is most pleasing to the eye and 

 gives token to the inexperienced of continued fine weather, storms are in 

 the meanwhile gradually brewing to belie the appearance. It reminds 

 me of .flSsop's shepherd, who was tempted to become a sailor by the tem- 

 porary but treacherous tranquillity of the sea. In the same way I have 



