330 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



kept bees, expected a good year when the 

 thyme blossomed abundantly. 



The use of honey has gradually lessened in 

 Europe, since our intercource with the Indies 

 has furnished sugar in such abundance. 



Sweets being among the natural luxuries 

 of man, honey must have been of great im- 

 portance to the ancients prior to the know- 

 ledge of sugar. They therefore studied the 

 nature of bees, and the plants which pro- 

 duced the best and the greatest quantity of 

 honey. In Spain they carried their bees and 

 hives upon the backs of mules into the coun- 

 try, or on the hills wherever they found 

 the best nourishment for their industrious 

 colonies. 



Pliny observes, that if honey were not so 

 common that every person is supplied with it, 

 it would be as highly esteemed as Laser, 

 which was the most rare and expensive drug. 



The honey made in some parts of Pontus, 

 was of so hurtful a nature, as to cause mad- 

 ness, on which account the Greeks called it 

 Mcenomenon. This poisonous quality was 

 thought to be owing to an abundance of 

 Oleander trees in that district. On this ac- 

 count they could not sell their honey ; nor 

 would the Romans receive it as tribute, but 



