62 On the poisonous HONEY 



fpecies of andromeda, has frequently the very fmell of 

 the flowers from w hich it is obtained.* 



I have already obferved, that it is highly probable, 

 that the American poifonous honey is procured from 

 the flowers of a confiderable number of the plants of the 

 country. 1 have mentioned but a few of them. But there 

 are many others which I have fome reafons for fufpeft- 

 ing arc alfo capable of affording an injurious hone^-. 

 Indeed, every flower that is poifonous to man, and is 

 capable of affording honey, may produce an honey in- 

 jurious to man; fince the properties of this fluid are fo 

 dependent upon the properties of the plants from which 

 it is procured. There is, therefore, more poetry than 

 philofophy in the following lines of Mr. Pope : 



" In the nice bee, what fenfe fo fubtly true, 



" From pois'nous herbs extrafts the heahng dew." 



Essay on Man. Epiftle I. hnes 211 & 212. 



I have been informed that in the fouthern parts of 

 biir continent, there is a plant, called hemlock, from 

 the flowers of which the bees prepare a honey that is 

 poifonous. The flowers are faid to be yellow, and the 

 root a deadly poifon. I do not know what plant this is. 

 Mod: probably, it is fome umbelliferous plant, perhaps a 

 cicuta, an angelica, or a fcandix. 



Some fpecies ofagaricus, at leaft fome fungous vege- 

 tables, that grow in the fouthern ftates, arc extremely 



poifonous. 



* In juftice to the fine genus of andromeda, I muft obfcrve, that all 

 the fpecies do not furnilh a pernicious honey. The andronKda nitida oi 

 hicida of Bartram affords an abundance of ncflar, or honey. The flowers 

 of this fpecies arc called by the country people of Carolina and Georgia, 

 " honey-flowfrs," not, however, merely Irom the circumftance juft men- 

 tioned, but fi'om the regular pofitipn of the flowers on the i:>edunc.le, which 

 open like the cells of a honey-comb, and from the odour of thefe flowers, 

 which greatly refembles that of honey. This fpecies grows abundantly 

 in the fwanips called bay-galls. The inhabitants of Carolina are univer- 

 fally of opinion, that it affords tlic grcatefl: quantity of lioncy, and that of 

 the beft quality. 



