Of the Honey-Dew. 122. 
In the end of Fanuary, or in February, lift them gent- 
ly from the ftools, and cleanfing the filth, fet them again 
in their place. And if your ground will allow, let them. 
ftand a full yard, diftant from. each other, and not, too 
great numbers in one garden; for by that means I had, 
no lefs than feven {warms the laft fummer, which fet- 
tled all together. 
Of the Hoaney-Dew. 
WHAT the honey-dew is, is difputed among the 
learned.* According to the ancients it was an efflux of 
air, a dew which fell upon flowers. 
The moderns fay it is rather a perfpiration of the fi- 
neft particles of the fap in plants, which evaporating 
thro’ the pores afterwards condenfe upon the flowers.+ 
Pliny was much in the dark about it, and writes. 
doubtfully of it, afferting, it was either the fweat of hea» 
yen, the fpittle of the ftars, or the moifture of the air 
purging itfelf. f 
Dr. Butler. judges it to be the quinteffence of all the 
earth’s fweetnefs (i. ¢. of the flowers) exhaled, as other. 
‘dews in vapours, into the loweft region. of the air, by. 
the continued and exceeding heat of the fun, and cone 
denfed there.§ 
And thence Ihave very often feen it defcend; ina 
clear day, like an exceeding fine rain; and eafily dif- 
cerned. 
@ Mel rofcidum. +, Nat, Delin. p. 108. 
Sive illud fit Coels Sudor, five quaedam Syderum faliva, five inns 
fe Aeris Succus, § Butler’ 3s Foem, Monar. pag. 1116 
