PENTANDRIA. 6l 



when they wither in a wet spring, acquire a noxious 

 poison ; whence it happens that this evil is not 

 equally felt in all years indiscriminately. 



" The signs of the honey being poisonous, are, its 

 not thickening properly, its colour being redder, its 

 scent disagreeable, and producing sneezing, and its 

 being heavier than when harmless. They who have 

 eaten it cast themselves on the ground with the hope 

 of cooling themselves ; for the effect of this honey is, 

 that they are melted with perspiration. 



" There is in the same part of Pontus another 

 kind of honey, which, from the madness it produces, 

 they call menomenon. It is supposed to be collected 

 from the flower of the Rhododendros, with which 

 the woods abound. Hence this people (the Sanni 

 or Maerones) whilst they furnish wax to the Romans, 

 in part of tribute, do not supply them with any honey, 

 because it is of a deadly quality." k 



The figure here represented is the Chamcerhodo- 

 dendros Pontica of Tournefort ; and, on the most ac- 

 curate investigation, is supposed to be the same plant 

 which produced that peculiarity in the honey which 

 caused the effects described by these authors. 



TOEACCO. Nicotiana talacum. This is an annual 

 plant, a native of America, of which botanists make 

 seven species. The stalk is erect and strong, branched 

 towards the top, and rises to five or six feet in height, 



k Pliny, Hist. Nat. Lib. xxi. c. 13. 



