HONEY. 119 



He has noticed and described tlie production of nectar 

 (honey-dew without aphidft:), on many herbaceous plants, 

 and on the following trees or shrubs: Two kinds of oak, 

 the ash, two kinds of Imden, 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. 



The Abbe 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 Brianson, where it flows plentifully from their leaves and 

 trunks, and thickens in the form in which it is usually seen. — 

 ("Observations sur I'Origine du Miel.") We have received 

 specimens of a honey-dew from California, which is said to 

 fall from the oak trees in stalactites of considerable size. 



356. Bees also harvest, in some seasons, a sweet substance 

 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 fur- 

 nished 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 ex- 

 amine somewhat more closely, you will discover that the object 

 of the ants in thus attending upon aphides, is to obtain 

 the saccharine fluid secreted by them, which may well be 

 denominated their milk. This tluid, which is scarcely inferior 

 to honey in its sweetness, issues in liquid drops from the 

 abdomen of these insects, 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 organs, they keep continu- 

 ally 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. 



