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79 
Bosc, who pretended to supremacy in the universal know- 
ledge of the subject, had kept a profound silence. On the — 
one hand, I was astonished at my own audacity, bat on the — 
other, I thought that those modern sages who commonly ' 
sow and plant in their saloons, and on their green carpets, 
might possibly have never seen or observed the pucerons of 
the academician of Montpellier, on their painted trees, nor 
the excrementous dejections of these insects on their man- 
tels, I took courage. 
_ Finally, after many fruitless researches, during the 
months of April and May, towards the end of June, I was 
arrested by a considerable humming in the branches of an 
old oak, planted beside a foss, which had been lopped about 
five or six years. I thought at first that this might be a 
swarm, which was rallying or settling on the tree. I ex- 
amined attentively, and could see no bee flying about, but 
it seemed as if I could hear thousands of them humming, 
I climbed the tree, and soon observed a legion of bees 
_ foraging on the leaves, without flying or leaving, the place; 
and I discovered the animal honey-dew, which I desired to 
find. But.it remained for me to discover, and know par- 
ticularly, the insects which dispensed it with so much libe- 
rality. I climbed a little higher on the tree, and in less 
than two feet above the bees, I observed the pucerons of 
M. de Sauvages. 
This first sitting confined me from half-after two, till 
near seven o’clock in the evening. I quit the tree with 
the last bee. The pucerons did not seem to incline to re- 
pose at sunset: I left them at their work. I tasted repeat- 
edly the liquor which they spilled on the under branches 
and leaves of the tree, but did not find it so mellifluous as 
M. Boissier announced. It retained a little of that bitter- 
ness derived from the essence and sap of the tree; but I 
thought that in the stomach of the bee, this substance 
_ would easily acquire the consistence and aroma of honey. 
_ The next day Iwas at the rendezvous, a long time be- 
fore the bees. I examined the work of the pucerons, by 
inspecting the leaves, bark, and under branches, on which 
the dejections of these insects had fallen during the night. 
A part of the excrementous fluid had fallen from the 
leaves and branches, to the ground, or on the grass. But 
by inspection, I computed that the dejections, from evening 
till morning, might be about the value of half an ordinary 
table-glass each night, and about a third more during the 
