HONEY. 115 
the ash, two kinds of linden, the sorb, the barberry, two 
kinds of raspberry, the poplar, the birch, two kinds of 
maple, and the hazel brush. In some parts of Europe, this 
honey-dew is so plentiful, that some Apiarists transport their 
bees to the districts in which it is produced, during its 
yield. (Fig. 42.) 
256. Bees also harvest, in some seasons, a sweet sub- 
stance of poorer quality, which is a discharge from the 
bodies of small aphides or ‘‘ plant lice.’’* 
Messrs. Kirby and Spence, in their interesting work on 
Entomology, have given a description of the honey-dew 
furnished by the aphides: 
“The loves of the ants and the aphides have long been cele- 
brated; you will always find the former very busy on those trees 
and plants on which the latter abound; and, if you examine 
somewhat more closely, you will discover that the object of the 
ants in thus attending upon the aphides, is to obtain the saccha- 
rine fluid secreted by them, which may well be denominated their 
milk. This fluid, which is scarcely inferior to honey in its 
sweetness, issues in limpid drops from the abdomen of these in- 
sects, not only by the ordinary passage, but also, by two setiform 
tubes, placed one on each side, just above it. Their sucker being 
inserted in the tender bark is, without intermission, employed in 
absorbing the sap, which, after it has passed through these or- 
gans, they keep continually discharging. When no ants attend 
them, by a certain jerk of the body, which takes place at regular 
intervals, they ejaculate it to a distance.” 
257. “Mr. Knight once observed a shower of honey-dew 
descending in innumerable small globules, near one of his oak 
trees. He cut off one ofthe branches, took it into the house, 
and, holding it in a stream of light admitted through a small 
opening, distinctly saw the aphides ejecting the fluid from their 
bodies with considerable force, and this accounts for its being 
* The Abbé Boissier de Sauvages, in 1763, described two species of honey- 
dew. The first kind, he says, has the same origin with the manna on the ash 
and maple trees of Calabria and Brianjon, where it flows plentifully from 
their leaves and trunks, and thickens in the formin which it is usually seen. 
—(‘‘ Observations sur 1’Origine du Miel.’?) We have received specimens of 
a honey-dew from California, which is said to fall from the oak trees in sta- 
lactites of considerable size. 
