GEOGRAPHY OF THE GENERA. 83 



poses, is attested by the vigilance, care, and assiduity 

 with which bees are tended in every country. Although 

 sugar, since its introduction to those northern countries 

 which have not been favoured by nature with the cane 

 that yields it, has superseded for ordinary uses the pro- 

 duce of the hive, this still continues serviceable for many 

 purposes to which sugar cannot be applied. It is used 

 in many ways in pharmacy, and still retains in the in- 

 terior of some continents, owing to the deficiency of 

 sugar, arising from the difficulties and expenses of transit, 

 all its primitive uses. In the East, even in countries pro- 

 ducing sugar in abundance, honey is extensively employed 

 for the preservation of fruits, which in their ripe state in 

 those hot climates would rapidly lose their fulness of 

 flavour were they not thus protected, — honey here 

 being esteemed superior to sugar in the circumstance of 

 its not crystallizing by reason of the heat, and also from 

 its applicability to this use in its natural state. 



This is especially the case in China, where a conserve 

 of green ginger, and of a fragrant orange (the Cum Quat), 

 are in high repute, and which are peculiarly grateful to 

 Europeans on the spot. These, however, are so delicately 

 susceptible of change of climate, that they lose some of 

 the aroma that constitutes much of their attraction, 

 upon transportation, and, indeed, like many kinds of 

 Southern wines, can be appreciated only within their 

 own country, from their extreme delicacy and tendency 

 to spoil. 



Honey is a very favourite food and medicine with the 

 Bedouins in Northern Arabia. Bees make their hives 

 in all the crevices of rocks in Hedscha, finding every- 

 where aromatic plants and flowers. At Taif, bees yield 

 most excellent honey, and the honey at Mecca is ex- 



G 2 



