HONEY, AS FOOD AND MEDICINE. 
acquiting a pungent taste and a deeper color. The usual 
adulterations of honey are with various forms of starch, as 
those of the potato and wheat, and with starch and cane 
sugars. The starch is added to whiten dark honey, and to 
correct the acidulous taste which old honey is apt to acquire, 
as well as for the sake of increased weight. The presence of 
starch may be readily detected by the usual iodine test. 
Honey is now rarely adulterated, in this country at least, as 
owing to the large supply, the conditions that once made 
sophistication profitable now no longer exist.” 
THE QUALITY OF HONEY. 
Athea, in Greece, furnished, from the south side of 
Mount Hymettus, and Sicily, from the hill and country 
surrounding Hybla, in which place Thyme scents the air, 
honey, which, was for ages held to be the finest and best. 
Also the honey from the country surrounding Mantua, the 
home of Virgil, from Mount Ida, from the shores of the 
Black Sea, and from the islands of Crete, Cyprus, and 
Kalydon, were held in high esteem ; and even yet, the honey 
from Spain, and especially from the Grecian Islands, is 
highly prized, and every year hundreds of quintals are trans- 
pee to Constantinople, and is of great demand at the 
alace of the Sultan. Of most excellent quality is the honey 
from the Island of Minorca, from Charmouny in Savoy, 
from Champagne, Narbonne and Montpellier, in southern 
France, and also that from Portugal. The latter is nearly 
white, and receives a pleasant aromatic taste from the 
abundant rosemary and other sweet-scented flowers, fruits 
and herbs. Bohemian honey was noted in ancient times for 
its rich aroma and its bright gold color; also in the vicinity 
of Salzbury and the Alps, the honey has rare value. 
In districts producing a great diversity of plants and 
flowers, those which decidedly predominate determine the 
quality of the honey there gathered. Natural meadows, and 
artificial pasture grounds, sown with esparsette, lucerne, 
melilot, white clover, &c., generally yield a very pure, white, 
sweet, and aromatic honey. The nature of the soil, climate, 
general temperature, and even the prevalent winds, have 
likewise considerable influence on the quality and quantity 
of the honey produced in any district. Thus, easterly and 
south-easterly winds rapidly dry up the honey in the nectaries 
of aca and long-continued drouth prevents the secretion 
of nectar. 
THE SOURCES OF HONEY. 
A writer on this interesting subject remarks that Honey is 
solely a vegetable product, not made. but gathered from the 
nectar of flowers, where it is secreted in fine weather accord~ 
ing to the iules of Nature’s laboratory. Each flower yields 
