OF NORTH AMERICA. S5 



I had the honey from the Highlands frequently brought 

 to my table. I often remarked that this honey had a 

 dirty browniih colour, and 1 was told that it was chiefly 

 procured from the diflerent fpecies of erica, perhaps prin- 

 cipally from the " blooming bather,"* which abound in 

 the Highlands. I never heard the people in Edinburgh, 

 although they confume large quantities of this honey, 

 complain that it pofl'effes any noxious property. If it 

 were aftively poifonous, or injurious, the quality would 

 have been, long fnice, obferved. 1 well remember, how- 

 ever, that, for two years that I ufed it, it almoft always 

 rendered me drowfy. Sometimes, indeed, it compoled 

 me to fleep as effeClually as a moderate dofe of laudanum 

 would have done. A foreigner, who h:-J not been ac- 

 cuftomed to eat anodyne honey, was better capable of 

 remarking the efFe£t which 1 have mentioned than the 

 natives, who had been in the habit of ufmg it, from their 

 infancy. I do not lind that this fingular property of the 

 Scots honey has been noticed by any writer, f I have, 

 therefore, related it, though it rather oppofes any objec- 

 tion to the figns einployed by our hunters to diftinguifh 

 poifonous from innocent honey. But he who is fludious 

 of truth, fhould relate ufeful fa£ls, as they are, without 

 regarding what is their conne£lion with a favourite fy- 

 flem, or opinion. 



The learned Jofeph Acofta fpeaks of a grey-coloured 

 honey comb which he faw, in the province ot Charcas, in 

 South-America. The honey of this comb, he fays, is 

 " fharp and black." He fays nothing farther of its pro- 

 perties.:}: 



An 



* Bums. 



f Dr. Withering fays bees extratft: a great deal of hon'iy from the 

 flowers of the erica vulgaris, or common heath, and he remarks that 

 " where heath abounds, the honey has a reddilh call." A Botanical Ar- 

 rangement of Britifli plants, &c. Vol. ift. 



X The Naturall and Morall Hiilorie of the Eafl and Weft Indies, &c. 

 P- 303- 



