Note 2269 — BOOK XVI. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST TREES.
John Bostock translation
Pliny seems to have here taken in a literal sense, what has been said figuratively by Virgil, Ecl. iv. l. 26:
“Et duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella;”
and by Ovid, in relation to the Golden Age, Met. i. 113:
“Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.”
Fée remarks, that we find on the leaf of the lime-tree a thin, sugary deposit, left by insects, and that a species of manna exudes from the Coniferæ, as also the bark of the beech. This, however, is never the case with the oak.