64 
origin, without however removing the doubts opposed to 
it, by a contrary prejudice. a) 
The honey-dew of a neighbouring bramble (ronce) was 
very different; the small globules having doubtless flowed 
or joined one to the other, either by the humidity of the 
air, which might have softened them, or by the heat ex- 
panding them, they formed large drops or tears, and the 
material desiccating, had become more viscous. It is 
commonly under these latter forms, that honey-dew is seen; 
and it is not surprising that it was never suspected to be 
transpiration. : 
In the season when I met with the honey-dew, in globules, 
on the gréen oak, the tree bore two sorts of leaves; the old — 
were of a firm texture, like the holly and other evergreens, 
and the new ones tender, having recently exfoliated. The 
honey-dew is found only on the old leaves, notwithstanding 
they are covered with the tufts of the new growth, and — 
consequently secure from every species of mist which — 
could fall. ‘This sufficiently proves that honey-dew is not 
extraneous or foreign to the leaves moistened with it, and 
that it does not fall on them, as is vulgarly supposed, inas- 
much as the new shoots of the green oaks, which are most 
exposed, and of course would be first touched, have not, — 
however, a single drop of it. 
The same singularity struck me, respecting the honey- 
dew of the bramble. Although by the conformation of this — 
shrub, all the leaves were nearly equally exposed to the — 
air, or to the fall of any thing vertically, there appeared no | 
honey-dew but on the old leaves; the recent ones had no 
more of it than the new shoots of the oak, which have been 
just noticed; the honey-juice, doubtless, not having had 
time sufficient to be formed in the tender part of these 
, 
ee 5 
SR ne Le et 
vegetables, or to be extracted or separated from the sap. — 
It is probably the effect of a long exposition to the air, — 
perhaps to its irregularity, and especially to the influence 
of the sun, to which we ought to impute the true agency 
of this secretion. 
Moreover, the plants and shrubs in the vicinity of these 
honey-dew trees, but of another species, and of a nature less 
proper for the formation or secretion of the juice of which 
we speak, did not bear the smallest vestige of it. There was 
no appearance of it on the ground about these trees, or on 
the stones or rocks, where the honey-dew, although dried, 
for a long time, leaves spots, as we shall see hereafter, in 
A 
