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470 The Royal American Magazine,

would otherwife foon be glued together, and rendered incapable of ftirring. 
"The drops thus spurted out fall upon the ground, if leaves or branches do not intervene; and the spots which they make on stones remain long, unless they are washed off by rain. this is the only honey dew that falls from a greater height than a branch on which these insects can cluster.
"It is now easy to account for a phaenomenon which formerly puzzled me much. Walking under a lime-tree in the King's garden at Paris, I felt my hands wetted with little drops, which I at first too for small rain. the tree should have sheltered me from rain, but i escaped it by going from under the tree. A seat placed by the tree shone with these drops. Being then unacquainted with any thing of this kind, except the honey-dew which is found upon leaves, I was at a lose 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 adherence to the leaves, till it became pretty large drops: But I have since found, that the lime tree is very subject to these insects. Bees are not the only insets which feast on this honey Ants are equally fond of it. The vine fretters, finding the greatest plenty of juice in trees in the middle of the summer, afford also at that time the greatest quantity of honey; and this lessons as the season advances, so that in the autumn, the bees prefer it to the flowers then in season. 
"Though these insects pierce the trees 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 husband man acts therefore injudiciously when he destroys them."
In Kempen-land in Germany I have seen, says Worlidge, about forty great bee lives, which contain, when they are full, about seventy pound weight in honey, placed near a great field, sown with buck-wheat; and it was related to me of a truth by the inhabitants, that the bees did suck such plenty of honey out of it, that in a fortnight's time the said hives were filled therewith.
All the willows which bear an early bloom, goosberries, &c. are of great use to bees, for closing the combs in which their young brood is laid on the first approach of spring. Turnips in bloom and other early plants come in very seasonably both for food and wax, at a time when their winter flock may have been nearly exhausted. Mustard is attended with this advantage, that by sowing the seed at different times the bloom may be continued during some weeks.
Though bees collected good honey from most herbs and flowers, yet, as by the following fact it is evident, that they may collect, from poisonous plants, honey which may be noxious in its effects, equal care should be taken in removing the plants which afford such juices as is taken tp collect plants of a contrary quality.
Xenophon mentions in a famous retreat of ten thousand, "that the soldiers sucked some honey combs in place near Trebizonda where there was a great number

For December, 1774. 471

number of bee-hives; that all who sucked them became intoxicated, vomited, and purged; not one was able to stand upon his legs, those who had ten but little were like men drunk, but those who had taken a good deal were like men mad, and some lay like men dead; the next day about the same hour they recovered their senses, but it was three or four days before they were intirely restored, as if they had tasted a poison." This fact cannot be a romance from so grave a writer who has present and for a considerable time had the principle command. Mr. Tournefort in his travels through the this country was particularly attentive to this account of Xenophon and observers that are the chamaerhododendros pontica, maxima, mespili folio, flore ruteo, which grows commonly in the neighbourhood of Trebizonde, hath these effects, and that even it's smell affects the head; he judges therefore that the honey had been extracted by the bees from the chamaerhododendros, and adds, the father Lamberti, a missionary, observes, that the honey which bees gather from a certain shrub of colchis or mingrelia, is dangerous, and causes vomiting; from the description Mr. Lamberti hath given of a shrub, Mr. Tournefort pronounces it to be the chamaerhododendros, mespili folio; its smell very much resembles the honey suckle's but is much stronger. W.

To the Editor of the Royal American Magazine.

SIR,

Please to give the inclosed dream a place in your useful Magazine, I know no reason why the public should be displeased at the appearance of some of our sleeping thoughts, many of them are curious, surprising and unaccountable, however, I seldom regard them and I think this is the very first that I ever committed to paper, it left a deep impression on my mind-and it may possible be a small amusement to some of your readers.

This morning about six o'clock being in a gentle slumber, I dreamed and in my cogitations I found my self in a fertile garden that gradually descended to a beautiful meadow, surrounded with little hills a pleasant grove, and a fruitful plain; amongst other plants common to a garden were some tender vines of the choisest grape, at the upper end of the garden stood a stately fabrick one part of which displayed to my view some marks of antiquity, the other part of the structure exhibited the genius of a modern architect, in the foundation under the antique part of the edifice was a rock which seemed to be placed there by nature, and of a greater magnitude than any of the stones that composed the foundation, and projected beyond the superfice thereof, over it was a window, on this projection lay a serpent of a monstrous size, length and aspect, which made his way out of the foundation, he was the largest

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