HONEY-DEW. 71 



CHAPTER V. 

 HONEY-DEW. 



THE term HONEY-DEW is applied to those sweet 

 clammy drops that glitter on the foliage of many 

 trees in hot weather. The name of this substance 

 would seem to import, that it is a deposition from 

 the atmosphere, and this has been the generally 

 received opinion respecting it, particularly among 

 the ancients ; it is an opinion still prevalent among 

 the husbandmen, who suppose it to fall from the 

 heavens : VIRGIL speaks of " Aerii mellis coelestia 

 dona :" and PLINY expresses his doubts, " sive 

 ille est cceli sudor, sive qusedam siderum saliva, 

 sive purgantis se ae'ris succus." The Rev. GIL- 

 BERT WHITE, in his Naturalist's Calendar, regards 

 honey-dew as the effluvia of flowers, evaporated 

 and drawn up into the atmosphere by the heat of 

 the weather, and falling down again in the night 

 with the dews that entangle them. But if this 

 were the case, the fall would be indiscriminate, 

 and we should not have it confined to particular 

 trees and shrubs, nor would it be found upon 

 green-house and other covered plants. Some na- 

 turalists have regarded honey-dew as an exuda- 

 tion or secretion from the surface of those leaves 

 upon which it is found, produced by some atmo- 



