BOOK XXI. xLviii. 82-xLix. 84 



as the bare " flesh of poultry. In some siimmers 

 also, when continued drought has deprived the bees 

 i)f their food from flovvers, the same kinds of food 

 must be supplied to them. When the honey is taken 

 out, the exit of the hive should be smeared with 

 orushed melissophyllum or greenweed, or the middle 

 should be Uned with bryony, to prevent the bees 

 from flying away. Honey pots and combs are recom- 

 mended to be washed with water ; this when boiled 

 down is said to make a very wholesome vinegar. 



XLIX. Wax is made after the honey has been Bpg, ■ 

 extracted from the combs, but these must be first 

 cleaned with water and dried for three days in 

 the dark ; then on the fourth day they are melted 

 in a new earthen vessel on the fire, with just enougli 

 water to cover them, and then strained in a wicker 

 basket. The wax is boiled again with the same 

 water in the same pot, and poured into other water, 

 this to be cold, contained in vessels smeared all 

 round inside with honey. The best is that called 

 Punic wax ; the next best is very yellow indeed, 

 with the smell of honey, pure, but produced in 

 Pontus, the region of the poisonous honies, which 

 makes me surprised at its estabhshed reputation ; 

 next is Cretan wax, consisting in very great part of 

 bee-glue, about which we have spoken in treating 

 of the nature of bees.'' After these comes Corsican 

 wax, wliich as it is made from honey got by bees 

 from box, is supposed to have a certain medicinal 

 quality. Punic wax is prepared in the following 

 way. Yellow wax is exposed to the wind several 

 times in the open, then it is heated in water taken 

 from the open sea,*' to which soda has been added. 

 Then they collect with spoons the " flower," that 



