Note 1982 — Chapter XI · EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.

There was likewise in Pontos a honey of a bitter taste, (Dion. Chrysost. i. 289, seq.) collected, according to Dioscorides (ii. 103), and Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxi. 44), from the purple flowered dwarf rhododendron which abounds on the northern shores of the Black Sea, more particularly in the vicinity of Trebizond. (Tournefort, t. iii. p. 74, sqq.) This, apparently, was the honey that produced effects so extraordinary upon the Ten Thousand, (Xenoph. Anab. iv. 8. 20,) and had the reputation of causing temporary madness. The shrub above named must be carefully distinguished from the common rhododendron which yields no honey. Della Rocca, i. 352, seq. Another cause of the bitterness of the Colchian honey is assigned by Lamberti: “Ils mettent quelquefois leur miel dans des écorces de citrouilles amères, ce qui a peut-être donné sujet à Strabon, [l. xi. c. 2. t. ii. p. 409, Tauchnitz.] d’en parler comme il a fait, et il est vrai aussi que celui qu’on ramasse dans les montagnes, dans le tems que le laurier-rose est en fleur, fait vomir ceux qui en prennent: si bien que les païsans, faute d’autre remède, s’en servent pour se purger.” Voyages au Nord, t. vi. p. 197.