Honey 197 



which thence doth descend into the earth in a dew or 

 small drizzling rain. 



" The hotter and drier the summer is, the greater and 

 more frequent are the honey-dews : cold and wet weather 

 is unkind tor them ; much rain at any time, as coming from 

 a higher region, wasteth away that which is already ele- 

 vated ; (so that there can be no more until another fit of 

 hot and dry weather) and in the end it dissolveth them 

 quite." 



In White's " Natural History of Selborne " we read the 

 following : — 



"June 4, 1783. Fast honey-dews this week. The rea- 

 son of these seems to be, that in hot days the effluvia of 

 flowers are drawn up by a brisk evaporation, and then in 

 the night fall down with the dews with which they are 

 entangled." 



Thorley expresses the same idea, — 



'' It is the most generally received and prevailing Opinion 

 that the Honey-Dews consist of Vapours raised in the 

 third Region, and being thoroughly purged and digested 

 by the Heat of the Sun, and condensed, fall down to the 

 Earth." 



What this strange honey-dew might be was long a mys- 

 tery. There is no doubt that a sweet substance often covers 

 the leaves of plants at certain seasons of the year, princi- 

 pally in July and August. We still find the honey-dew, — 

 often in disagreeable abundance, — and there are still those 

 who look upon it as a precipitation of flower vapors that 

 have been drawn into the upper air. 



Those who have been let into the secret of honey-dew, 

 however, no longer consider it in any sense a distillation 

 of the skies. 



Moreover, although Zeus' oaks still yield honey to the 

 seeking bees, we know the sweet liquid is not a gift from 



