POISONOUS HONEY OF NORTH AMERICA. J73 



days, the foldiers rofe, but in a condition people are in after Ancient ac- 



tati'ng a ftrong potion V count * of k 



„. r . . . noxious honey. 



The fame fad is recorded by Diodorus Siculus. 



Mr. Tournefort thinks there is every probability that this 



poifonous honey was fucked from the flowers of fome fpecies 



of chamaerhododendros, or rhododendron. He obferves that 



all the country about Trebifond is full of the (pedes of this 



plant, and he remarks that Father Lambert, Theatin mif- 



fionary, agrees thut the honey which the bees extract from a 



certain fhrub in Colchis or Mingrelia, is dangerous, and 



caufes vomiting. Lambert calls this fhrub oleandro giallo, or 



the yellow rofe-laurel, which Mr. Tournefort fays is, without 



difpute, his chamaerhododendron pontica maxima, Mefpili 



folio, flore luteo f ; the azalea pontica, already mentioned. 



There are feveral pafiages in the Roman poets, which plainly 



(how, that they were no ftrangers to the poifonous properties 



of certain kinds of honey. It is not neceflary to mention all 



thefe paffages. But the following are worthy of notice. 



Virgil cautions us not to fufFer a yew tree to grow about 



bee-hives : 



Neu propius te&is taxumfme. 



Georgic Lib. IV. 1. 47. 



In his 9th Ecologue, the fame philofophic poet fpeaks of 

 the yews of Corfica as being particularly injurious to bees. 

 Sic tua Cynuvas fugiant examina taxos. 1. 30. 



The honey of Corfica, as Dr. Martyn ftrongly exprefTes 

 it, " infamous for its evil qualities *." 



The 



* Thefe are nearly the words of Mr. Totirneforfs tranflation. 

 I am forry that I have not the original work of Xenophon at hand. 



t See Tourneforfs Voyage into the Levant. Vol. iii. p. 68. 

 Englifli tranflation. London, 1741. 



X $ee his Tranflation of the Georgics of Virgil, note to line 47, 

 in book IV. Dr. Martyn's criticifms and annotations always de- 

 mand attention. I greatly doubt, however, if the taxus of Virgi! 

 be the common yew, or any fpecies of that genus. Martyn hirnlelf 

 allows, that " it does not appear from other writers (befide Virgil), 

 that Corfica abounded in yews." I have been affured, that the yew 

 is not an indigenous vegetable in that ifland, and that it is even 

 rare among the foreign vegetables. It may, indeed, be faid, 

 perhaps it was common in the time of Virgil. I wouldobferve, 

 that the ye\v is mvich lefs poifonous than has been commonly fup- 



pofti 



