64 On the POISONOUS HONEY 



has been ufed, in Ruffia, with much advantage, in the 

 ilchias, in chronicle rheumatifm, and in other difeafes ; 

 and we fhall immediately fee that from another fpecies 

 a poifonous honey has been procured in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Euxine-Sea. The footllalks of the leaves, 

 and alfo the feeds, of our rhododendron maximum arc 

 covered with the fame brown powder as 1 obferved 

 covered the leaf-footftalks and the feeds of feveral of the 

 andromedas, and the kalmicc. This powder in the rho- 

 dodendron, as well as in the andromeda; and kalmiae, 

 excites fneezing, and it is curious to obferve that a 

 fneezing is mentioned by Diofcorides among the fymp- 

 toms produced by the honey about Heraclea Pontica. 

 That honey, as will be prefently ihown, is procured 

 from the rhododendron ponticum. 



II. The azalea nudiflora. This fine flirub is well 

 known in Pennfylvania, and other parts of the United 

 States, by the name of wild honeyfuckle. Of its pro- 

 perties I know nothing certain. It has, however, too 

 much of the family face, and is too frequently found in 

 company with the rhododendron maximum, and tlie 

 kalmiae, not to make me fufpicious that it partakes alfo 

 of the charadlers of thefe deleterious vegetables. More- 

 over, a fpecies of this genus, the azalea pontica of Lin- 

 naeus, is fuppofed to be the segolethron of Pliny, who 

 mentions it as the plant from which the poifonous honey 

 about Heraclea Pontica is prepared. The tube of the 

 flower of our azalea is perforated by the large bee, called 

 bumble-bee. 



III. Datura ftramonium. This plant is known by a 

 variety of names, fuch as Jameflown-weed, gymfin, 

 ftink-weed, French-chefnut. Its adive and poifonous 

 properties are now pretty generally known. Children 

 have often been injured by eating the feeds. The tube 

 of the flower contains a confiderable quantity of honey. 



This 



