14 FEBRUARY 1998, Page 23

High on honeydew

Sir: David Welch in his lovely Diary piece (31 January) refers to the unfortunate exu- dation of aphids. This is properly known as honeydew, and has strange hallucinatory properties when ingested. Coleridge was probably aware of this, hence the closing lines of 'Kubla Khan' where the poet describes himself in romantic terms, going on to advise the reader, 'Close your eyes with holy dread,/For he on honey-dew hath fed,/And drunk the milk of Paradise.' One cannot help but go on to wonder what effect 40 days and nights in the desert on such a diet, washed down with the odd locust, would have on a chap.

John Cheny

Flat 2A, Weston Park, Hitchin, Herts