THE farmer’s manual. 
181 
to which they gave the name of ambrosia. Honey 
is particularly to be ascribed to the circulation of the 
sap at the return of spring. Like the other produc- 
tions of the Bee, Naturalists have differed as to the 
origin of honey. Some moderns, led away by vul- 
gar opinion, have thought that honey is a moisture 
in the air, or a dew, which falls upon the flowers and 
leaves of trees, and no where else. It is not a diffi- 
cult matter to convince those persons of their er- 
ror, who ought, in the first place, to consider, that 
dew and rain are very injurious to honey, as they di- 
lute it, and prevent the Bees from finding it. It is on 
a close and sultry day that the Bees find the richest 
harvest of honey. If dew were the principle of it, 
the Bees would find it indiscriminately upon all flow- 
ers and vegetables ; this is not the case, as confirmed 
by experience; and besides, how many flowers are 
there, which being in themselves fertile in honey, and 
having an horizontal or perpendicular inclination 
to the earth, consequently do not allow the dew to 
be received into their orifices. It is, therefore, most 
consistent with reason and experience to suppose, 
that the honey-dew is an exudation of the vegetables 
themselves, or a sensible transpiration of that sweet 
and mellifluous juice, which, having circulated in the 
different parts of certain vegetables, separates itself, 
and bursts c|uite unprepared, either at the bottoms of 
flowers, or at the upper parts of the leaves, and in 
some plants appears in great abundance. The pri- 
mary destination of this mellifluous liquid, or honey- 
dew, appears to be the nourishment of the fruit in its 
infancy. But an objection here presents itself; why 
are the male flowers, which never produce fruit, also 
provided with this honey ? Linneus himself was 
aware of this oHection, and could not solve it to his 
satisfaction. The utility of honey to the flowers, 
and the reason of its being accorded to them by the 
Author of nature, arc but imperfectly known to us. 
No Botanist has as yet given a direct and convincing 
16 
