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468 THE ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE, For DECEMBER, 1774. 469

The Abbe Boissier de Sauvages having discovered a substance not before attended to, which the bees collect and turn to honey ; the author here gives the purport of what he says in a memoir read before the society of sciences at Montpellier, on the 16th of December, 1762, on the origin of honey.

He begins with declaring it to be his opinion, that the bees have no other share in the making of honey, than simply collecting it. Other writers believe that, when the liquor which the bees collect has been for some time in their stomachs, it comes from thence changed into true honey, the liquor having been there properly digested, and rendered thicker than when it entered. The Abbe Boissier's opinion is supported by the honey's being still a body subject to vinous fermentation, when properly diluted, which does not obtain in any animal substance the author knows of.

Besides the liquor obtained from the flowers of plants, the Abbe acquaints us, that he has seen two kinds of honey dews, which the bees are equally fond of ; both derive their origin from vegetables, though in different ways.

The first kind, the only one known to Husbandmen, and which passes for a dew that falls on trees, is no other than a mild sweet juice, which having circulated through the vessels of vegetables, is separated in proper reservoirs in the flowers, or on the leaves where it is properly called the honey dew : sometimes it is deposited in the pith, as in the sugar cane ; and at other times in the juice of pulpy summer fruits, when ripe. Such is the origin of the manna which is collected on the ash and maple of Calabria and Briancon, where it flows in great plenty from the leaves and trunks of these trees, and thickens into the form in which it is usually seen. 

" Chance, says the Abbe Boissier, 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 taste 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 larger drops, or, plaster-wise, covering the leaves. This is the form that it is usually seen in.

" The oak had, at this time, two kinds of leaves ; the old, which were strong and firm ; and the, which were tender and lately 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 of it. Another proof that this dew proceeds from the leaves is, that other neighbouring trees which do not afford a juice of this kind, had no moisture on them ; and particularly the mulberry, berry, which is a very happy 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 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 vessels, as to bring forth a thicker and 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 mean insect, the excrement thrown out by which makes a part of the most delicious honey we ever taste. *

These vine fretters rest during the several months on the bark of particular trees, and extract their food by piercing that bark without hurting the tree, or bringing upon it any deformity ; as do these insects which make the leaves of some trees curl up, or cause galls to grow upon others. They settle upon branches which are a year old. The juice, at first perhaps hard and crabbed, 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 that 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.

" The buzzing of beees in a tuft of holm oak made me suspect that some very interested view brought so many of them thither. I knew that it was not the season for expecting honey-dew, nor such the place where it usually is, and was surprised to find the centre of the tuft leaves and branches covered with drops which the bees collected with a huming noise. The form of the drops drew my attention, and led to the following discovery. Instead of being round, like drops which had fallen, each of these formed a little longish oval. I soon perceived from whence they proceeded. The honeyed leaves were situated beneath a swarm of the larger black vine fretters ; and, on observing these insects, I saw them from time to time raise their bellies, at the extremity of which there then appeared a transparent amber-coloured drop, which they instantly darted from them to the distance of some inches. I found, on tasting some which I had catched on my hand, that it had the same flavour with what had before fallen on the leaves. I afterwards saw the smaller kind dart their drops in the same manner. 

" This darting, to which the drop owes its oval from, is not a matter of indifference to these insects themselves, but seems to have been wisely instituted, in order to preserve cleanliness in individuals as well as among the whole swarm ; for, pressing as they do one upon another, they would

* The French call this insect a puceron. It is a kind of vine fretter.

Transcription Notes:
the berry of "mulberry" is written twice, once at the bottom of the first page, and then again at the top of the second "beees" intentionally misspelled "huming" intentionally misspelled "honey-dew" sometimes spelled with hyphen, sometimes without ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-12 11:11:40