168 POISONOUI HONEY ©F NORTH AMERICA. 



The leaves are poifonous to fheep. The petioli, or foot* 

 ftalks of the leaves and the feeds, within the feed-veffe!, are 

 covered with a brown powder, fimilar to that of kalmiae. 

 This powder applied to the noftrils occafions violent fneez- 

 ing *; From the flowers of this plant, the bees extract con- 

 fiderable quantities of honey ; and it delerves to be mentioned 

 that this honey, as well as that obtained from fome other 

 American fpecies of andromeda, has frequently the very (me\\ 

 of the flowers from which it is obtained f. 

 Plant? affording I have already obferved, that it is highly probable, that 

 the American poifonous honey is procured from the flowers of 

 a confiderable number of the plants of the country. I have 

 mentioned but a few of them. But there are many others 

 which I have fome reafons for fufpecfing are alio capable of 

 affording an injurious honey. Indeed, every flower that is 

 poifonous to man, and is capable of affording honey, may 

 produce an honey injurious to man ; fince the properties of 

 this fluid are fo dependant upon the properties of the plants 

 from which it is procured. There is, therefore, more poetry 

 than philofophy in the following lines of Mr. Pope ; 



*' In the nice bee, what fenfe fo fubtly true, 



f* From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing clew." 



Essay on Man, Epiftle L lines 211 & 212: 



I have been informed that, in (he fouthern parts of our con- 

 tinent, there is a plant, called hemlock, from the flowers of 



£ For fome information relative to the properties of the andro? 

 meda mariana, fee Collections for an Eflay towards a Materia 

 Medica of the United States, pages 19, 20, 47. Philadelphia, 

 1798. 



-f- In juflice to the fine genus of andromeda, I muft obferve, that 

 all the (pecies do not furnifh a pernicious honey. The androrqeda 

 nitida or lucida of Bartram affords an abundance of ne£tar ? or 

 honey. The flowers of this fpecies are called by the country 

 people cf Carolina and Georgia, " honey flowers, " not, however, 

 mcrtly from the circumftance juft mentioned, but f.-om the regular 

 pofition of the flowers on the peduncle, which open like the cells 

 cf a honey-comb, and from the odour of thefe flowers, which 

 greatly refembles that of honey. This fpecies grows abundantly 

 jn the fwanips called bay-galls. The inhabitants of Carolina are 

 univerfally of opinion, that it affords the greater! quantity of honey, 

 jind that of the beft quality. 



whicft 



