242 
EFFECT OF SEASONS 
cherry and the plum, for the same purpose, and their 
presence brought the bat, so that some places were ani- 
mated by the flitting about of these creatures. Aphides 
abounded upon all the young sprays. 
June 17, 1828. — Abundance of rain has fallen during 
the preceding night, and in the morning of this day, 
about two o’clock, the sun broke out, the air becoming 
hot and heavy. I was soon surprised by observing mul- 
titudes of hive-bees buzzing and crawling about the 
foliage and young shoots of my laurel bushes (prunus 
laurocerasus), and feeding upon some sweet matter 
lodged on them ; the blossoms had long before fallen 
off : no aphides frequent this plant, nor were there any 
trees near them from whence any sweet matter might 
have fallen ; we have no honey-dew upon our fruit-trees, 
and an aphis is scarcely to be found. Has any saccha- 
rine matter fallen, or been emitted by the plant to en- 
tice these insects to harbor about them ? It clearly ap- 
pears that honey-dews arise from two causes ; that a 
large portion of it is the discharges from insects of the 
genus aphis, has long since been manifested by the 
Abbe Sauvages, Mr. Curtis, and others : insects dis- 
charge in all days and hours during the warm months 
of the year. But there is another kind which we find 
only at particular times, and in certain states of the at- 
mosphere, lodged on certain plants during the night in 
such quantities as to hang occasionally in drops from 
the points of the leaves. The foliage of the oak is at 
times lucid with this sweet liquor, and this the bees 
are soon acquainted with, and eagerly collect it, which 
they only partially do when spread upon the leaves on 
the wall, the evident discharge of aphides. Some of 
my neighbors who have hives will occasionally observe, 
“ A heavy honey-dew last night, and the bees are hard 
at work ; ” this cannot proceed from insect discharges. 
That some foliage may condense any matter that may 
fall upon it, is not improbable ; or even excrete it from 
their pores by the impellent power of the air in certain 
states, is to be conceived ; but all this is conjectural, 
and our knowledge of the causes which produce these 
partial honey-dews is yet to be acquired. 
