2 Y4" POISONOUS HONEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Advantages of The raiting of bees, for the purpofes of procuring their 



SoTtoVhepSmci nonev anc * tne * r wax » mav > at *° me future period, become an 

 •ear beehives, objeft of great importance to the United States. Surely then, 

 * c# it would be a matter of confequence to attend to the cultivation 



or prefervation of thofe vegetables which furnifti an innocent 

 and a well-flavoured honey, and a good wax. But even in a 

 more limited view of the fubjeel, fome knowledge of thefe 

 vegetables feems to be indifpenfibly neceflary . And in the new 

 fettlement, whither the fettler has carried his bees, where im- 

 provements are ftill very imperfect, it cannot be deemed a tri- 

 vial talk to have pointed out fome of thofe vegetables from 

 which an injurious honey is obtained. 



The ancients, who, in fome refpe&s at leaft, were equal 

 to the moderns, appear to have paid much attention to this 

 fubject. Virgil * and Columella have both told us what plants 

 ought to grow about apiaries. It is unneceflary to repeat, in 

 this place, what the two Roman writers have faid on the 

 fubject. The Georgics of the Mantuan poet are in the hands 

 of every man of tafte ; and the work of Columella fjhould 

 be read, wherever agriculture engages the attention of gentle- 

 men. 



The proper management of bees may be confidered as a 

 fcience. It is not fufficient that bees merely make honey and 

 wax. Their honey may be injurious or poifonous, and their 

 wax may be nearly ufelefs. To afiift, and to direct the labours 

 of thefe little infecls, the knowledge and the hand of man are 



pofed. I know not that any modern writer has pretended that the 

 bees procure a pernicious honey from its flowers. Thefe facls give 

 rife to my fufpicion, that the taxus of Virgil was not the yew, or 

 taxus of the modern hotanifts. If not the yew, what vegetable was 

 it ? Perhaps, the buxus virens, or box. This vegetable abounds 

 in Corfica, where to this day it is known by the name of taxo* The 

 gentleman from whom I received this information allured me, that 

 the bees of Corfica are very fond of the flowers of the box, and 

 that the honey from this fource is reputed poifonous. The box is, 

 unqueftionably, a poifonous vegetable. But there is ftill a dif- 

 ficulty in the cafe. Virgil mentions both taxus and buxus. I 

 think there can be no doubt that his buxus (fee Georgic, lib. II. 

 1. 449.) is the buxus of the modern hotanifts. 



* See Georgicorum, lib. IV. 1. 30.— 32. 



f De Re Ruttica, libri XII. 



required. 



