12 
pliis^y's natueal history. 
[Book XI. 
again through the mouth — deteriorated besides by the juices 
of flowers, and then steeped within the hives and subjected to 
such repeated changes — still, in spite of all this, it affords us 
by its flavour a most exquisite pleasure, the result, no doubt, 
of its aethereal nature and origin. 
CHAP. 13. (13.) WHEEE THE BEST HONEY IS PRODITCED. 
The honey is always best in those countries where it is to 
be found deposited in the calix of the most exquisite flowers, 
such, for instance, as the districts of Hymettus and Hybla, 
in Attica and Sicily respectively, and after them the island of 
Calydna.^- At first, honey is thin, like water, after which it 
effervesces for some days, and purifies itself like must. On 
the twentieth day it begins to thicken, and soon after becomes 
covered with a thin membrane, which gradually increases 
through the scum which is thrown up by the heat. The 
honey of the very finest flavour, and the least tainted by the 
leaves of trees, is that gathered from the foliage of the oak 
and the linden, and from reeds. 
CHAP. 14. (14.) THE KlJ^nS OF HO^J^EY PECITLIAR TO YlEIOUS 
PLACES. 
The peculiar excellence of honey depends, as already stated, 
on the country in which it is produced; the modes, too, of 
estimating its quality are numerous. In some countries we find 
the honey-comb remarkable for the goodness of the wax, as in 
Sicil}^, for instance, and the country of the Peligni ; in other 
places the honey itself is found in greater abundance, as in 
Crete, Cyprus, and Africa ; and in others, again, the comb is 
remarkable for its size ; the northern climates, for instance, 
for in Germany a comb has been known to be as much as eight 
feet in length, and quite black on the concave surface. 
But whatever the country in which it may happen to have been 
produced, there are three different kinds of honey. — Spring 
honey is that made in a comb which has been constructed of 
flowers, from which circumstance it has received the name of an- 
thinum. There are some persons who say that this should not 
be touched, because the more abundant the nutriment, the 
See B. iv. c. 24. 
34 Qr ^' Flower-honey.'* 
33 In the last Chapter. 
