HONEY-Dew, a sweet saccharine substance found on the leaves of certain trees, of which bees are very fond, by the husbandmen supposed to fall from the heavens like common dew. This opinion hath been refuted, and the true origin of this and other saccharine dews shown by the Abbe Bossier de Sauvages, in a memoir read before the Society of Sciences at Montpellier. "Chance (says the Abbe) afforded me an opportunity of seeing this juice in its primitive form on the leaves of the holm oak: these leaves were covered with thousands of small round globules or drops, which, without touching one another, seemed to point out the pore from whence each of them had proceeded. My tale informed me that they were as sweet as honey: the honey-dew on a neighbouring bramble did not resemble the former, the drops having run together; owing either to the moisture of the air which had diluted them, or to the heat which had expanded them. The dew was become more viscous, and lay in large drops, covering the leaves; in this form it is usually seen.
"The oak had at this time two sorts of leaves; the old, which were strong and firm; and the new, which were tender, and newly come forth. The honey-dew was found only on the old leaves; though these were covered by the new ones, and by that means sheltered from any moisture that could fall from above. I observed the same on the old leaves of the bramble, while the new leaves were quite free from it. Another proof that this dew proceeds from the leaves is, that other neighbouring trees not furnished with a juice of this kind had no moisture on them; and particularly the mulberry, which is a very particular circumstance, for this juice is a deadly poison to silk-worms. If this juice fell in the form of a dew, mist, or fog, it would wet all the leaves without distinction, and every part of the leaves, under as well as upper. Heat may have some share in its production: for though
Honey. though the common heat promotes only the transpiration of the more volatile and fluid juices, a sultry heat, especially if reflected by clouds, may so far dilate the vessel as to produce a more viscous juice, such as the honey-dew.
"The second kind of honey-dew, which is the chief resource of bees after the spring-flowers and dew by transpiration on leaves are past, owes its origin to a small insect called a vine-fretter; the excrement ejected with some force by this insect makes a part of the most delicate honey known in nature (see ARIS). These vine-fretters rest during several months on the barks of particular trees, and extract their food by piercing that bark, without hurting or deforming the tree. These insects also cause the leaves of some trees to curl up, and produce galls upon others. They settle on branches that are a year old. The juice, at first perhaps hard and crabb'd, becomes, in the bowels of this insect, equal in sweetness to the honey obtained from the flowers and leaves of vegetables; excepting that the flowers may communicate some of their essential oil to the honey, and this may give it a peculiar flavour, as happened to myself by planting a hedge of rosemary near my bees at Sauvages: the honey has tasted of it ever since, that shrub continuing long in flower.
"I have observed two species of vine-fretters, which live unsheathed on the bark of young branches; a larger and a lesser. The lesser species is of the colour of the bark upon which it feeds, generally green. It is chiefly distinguished by two horns, or straight, immovable, fleshy substances, which rise perpendicularly from the lower sides of the belly, one on each side. This is the species which live on the young branches of bramble and elder. The larger species is double the size of the other; is of a blackish colour; and instead of the horns which distinguish the other, have in the same part of the skin a small button, black and shining like jet.
"The buzzing of bees in a tuft of holm-oak, made me suspect that something very interesting brought some of them thither. I knew that it was not the season for expecting honey-dew, nor was it the place where it is usually found; and was surprised to find the tuft of leaves and branches covered with drops which the bees collected with a humming noise. The form of the drops drew my attention, and led me to the following discovery. Instead of being round like drops which had fallen, each formed a small longish oval. I soon perceived from whence they proceeded. The leaves covered with these drops of honey were situated beneath a swarm of the larger black vine-fretters; and on observing these insects, I perceived them from time to time raise their bellies, at the extremity of which there then appeared a small drop of an amber colour, which they instantly ejected from them to the distance of some inches. I found by tasting some of these drops which I had caught on my hand, that it had the same flavour with what had before fallen on the leaves. I afterwards saw the smaller species of vine-fretters eject their drops in the same manner. This ejection is so far from being a matter of indifference to these insects themselves, that it seems to have been wisely instituted to procure cleanliness in each individual, as well as to preserve the whole swarm
from destruction; for pressing as they do one upon another, they would otherwise soon be glued together, and rendered incapable of stirring. The drops thus spurted out fall upon the ground, if not intercepted by leaves or branches; and the spots they make on flowers remain some time, unless washed off by rain. This is the only honey-dew that falls; and this never falls from a greater height than a branch where these insects can cluster.
"It is now easy to account for a phenomenon which formerly puzzled me greatly. Walking under a lime-tree in the king's garden at Paris, I felt my hand wetted with little drops, which I at first took for small rain. The tree indeed should have sheltered me from the rain, but I escaped it by going from under the tree. A seat placed near the tree shone with these drops. And being then unacquainted with any thing of this kind, except the honey-dew found on the leaves of some particular trees, I was at a loss to conceive how so glutinous a substance could fall from the leaves in such small drops: for I knew that rain could not overcome its natural attraction to the leaves till it became pretty large drops; but I have since found, that the lime-tree is very subject to these vine-fretters.
"Bees are not the only insects that feast upon this honey; ants are equally fond of it. Led into this opinion by what naturalists have said, I at first believed that the horns in the lesser species of these vine-fretters had in their extremity a liquor which the ants went in search of: but I soon discovered that what drew the ants after them came from elsewhere, both in the larger and lesser species, and that no liquor is discharged by the horns. There are two species of ants which search for these insects. The large black ants follow those which live on the oaks and chesnut; the lesser ants attend those on the elder. But as the ants are not, like the bees, provided with the means of sucking up fluids; they place themselves near the vine-fretters, in order to seize the drop the moment they see it appear upon the anus; and as the drop remains some time on the small vine-fretters before they can cast it off, the ants have leisure to catch it, and thereby prevent the bees from having any share: but the vine-fretters of the oak and chesnut being stronger, and perhaps more plentifully supplied with juice, dart the drop instantly, so that the larger ants get very little of it.
"The vine-fretters finding the greatest plenty of juice in trees about the middle of summer, afford also at that time the greatest quantity of honey; and this lessens as the season advances, so that in the autumn the bees prefer it to the flowers then in season. Though these insects pierce the tree to the sap in a thousand places, yet the trees do not seem to suffer at all from them, nor do the leaves lose the least of their verdure. The husbandman therefore acts injudiciously when he destroys them."
Honey-Guide, a curious species of cuckow. See CUCULUS.
Honey-Locust, or Three-thorned Acacia. See GLIDITIA.
Honey-Suckle. See LONICERA.