A tree from which honeydew or other liquid secretions of insects drip in considerable quantities, esp. one infested by the larvae of any species of the genus Ptylus, allied to the cuckoo spits, which in tropical countries secrete large quantities of a watery fluid.
... Solomon's temple, done in copperplate; Invention pure, but meant, we may presume, To give some Scripture sanction to the room. Facing this last, two samplers you might see, Each, with its urn and stiffly weeping tree, Devoted to some memory long ago More faded than their lines of worsted woe; Cut paper decked their frames against the flies, Though none e'er dared an entrance who were wise, 320 And bushed asparagus in fading green Added its shiver ... — The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell