NOTES ON HONEY. 25l 



in the honey obtained from oui' fruit districts is entirely due to 

 the volatile oils found in peach blossom and other stone-fruit. With 

 care all these favourite flavoured honeys can be stored for market 

 purposes. The worst part of it is, the&e valuable honeys come in 

 during early spring, when they are largely required by the bees for 

 raising the first brood of the season. Nevertheless, if the bee- 

 keeper has not been over avaricious and extracted too closely be- 

 fore putting his bees up for winter, this drawback will not be there 

 to contend with. 



The honey of our native flora, that is most appreciated is that 

 from the white box {Eucdiypfus heviipJiJoia), yellow box {E. melli- 

 dora), and the prickly tea-tree {Melaleuca styphelioides). Undoubt- 

 edly some honey from our native flowers is so strongly impregnated 

 with eucalyptus flavour as to give one the idea that it is a com- 

 pound medicament for coughs, colds, &c., and was never produced 

 direct from Nature's laboratories. This inferior, strongly-flavoured 

 bush honey is objected to by our brethren in the old country, and 

 indeed by the public of New South Wales ; but the honey with the 

 flavours above-mentioned must ultimately become as popular and 

 as much sought after as that of Crete, Minorca, Narbonne, or 

 Cuba. 



Honey is not only a valuable article of food, but is at once 

 dietary, preservatory, medicinal, and a beverage. As an article of 

 food, cheap as it is, there are few people use it to the extent it 

 should be. As a preservative of fruit and other vegetable sub- 

 stances, it is one of the best mediums we have. It is frequently 

 used in the arts for that purpose. It acts in the same manner as 

 sugar. It is said the ancient Spartans used honey to preserve the 

 dead bodies of their kings. The writer once saw the dead body of 

 a mouse cut out from a jar of granulated honey. Whilst in a liquid 

 state it had served as a medium of suicide for the unfortunate one. 

 The body showed not the slightest signs of decomposition, although 

 it must have been dead over twelve months. ?Ioney diluted with 

 about four times its volume of water, and exposed in an open 

 vessel to the heat of the sun, produces a strong vinegar of a fine 

 flavoiu-. This vinegar is cheaply and easily made, and is equal, if 

 not superior, to the malted article for pickling purposes. Honey, 

 prepared with medicinal ingredients, forms an excellent medicated 

 drink. The metheglen of the ancient Britons was fermented honey. 

 Light or weak mead (another name for metheglen) is an excellent 

 cooling summer drink. 



