4<82 NATURAL HISTORY OF AFRICA^ 
parts of Africa, and in some districts affords a 
particularly delicious honey ; and the wax obtain- 
ed from the hive forms an article of consequence 
in the trade of Africa. 
The tarantula spider abounds in Barbary, where 
its bite is known to produce violent inflammation, 
and other disagreeable symptoms ; the bite of the 
solpuga araneoideSy a native of the Cape of Good 
Hope, is often fatal to man and beast ; the com- 
mon scorpion^ so well known for the painful, and 
sometimes mortal wound it inflicts, is also a na- 
tive of Africa ; and the tendaraman, a species of 
spider, native of Morocco, is said by Mr Jackson 
to be so poisonous, that the person bitten survives 
but a few hours. 
The great centipede (scolopendra morsitans, 
Lin,), a singularly unpleasant looking animal, 
which is poisonous, and produces wounds more 
painful than those of the scorpion, occurs abun- 
dantly in Africa^ 
V. — Molluscous Animals, 
The coasts and seas of Africa afford many re- 
markable and striking species of this class. The 
shells of the African coasts, and rivers and lakes, 
by their forms, magnitudes, colours, and lustres, 
shew, in an interesting manner, how the forma- 
tion of testaceous productions is connected with, 
and dependent in some measure on geographical 
