. . . CHIN. manisan labab, MALAY. Honig, Honing, . DUP. Sbahad, . PERS., HIND. Dibs, Asal, . . . EGYPT. Med, Rus Miel, . . . Fn., Sr. Madha, . . SANSK.
Debash, . . . Han. Mipanny, . . SINGH.
Ma.* . . . HIND. Haning, . . . SW.
Mele, Miele, . IT. Tayn, Teyna, TAM., Honey is obtained from the honeycomb of the Apis mellifica, Linn., and other species of honey bee, of the order Hymenoptera, Linn. Honey is secreted by the nectaries of flowers, sucked by the bee into its crop, where it undergoes some slight changes, and is then stored up in the comb for the food of its community. The finest honey is that which is allowed to drain from the comb ; and if obtained from hives which have never swarmed, it is called virgin honey. In some localities it is poisonous, owing to the deleterious nature of the plants from which it is collected. Dr. Hooker has stated that in some parts of Sikkim the honey of rhododendron flowers is believed to be poisonous. Azalea pontica, the Anabasis informs us, poisoned the soldiers of Xenophon in the retreat of the ten thousand. Honey diluted with water undergoes the vinous fermentation, and hydromel or mead is produced. A wild shrub, jeneda, appears to intoxicate the bees. The aborigines take a piece in their hand, and, biting through the bark, they get the pun gent white juice into their mouths ; this they spit out at the bees, which either fly away or become intoxicated. The honey of the Eastern Archi pelago is a thin syrup, very inferior in flavour to that of temperate climates. The comb is chiefly sought on account of the wax, which forms a large article of exportation to Europe, India, and China. The honeys of the Aravalli and of Kashmir are praised, selling at tenpence the pound. There are wild bees in the woods of Kashmir, but the zamindars have also hives in the walls of their houses. The bees are quite domesticated. In the
Shevaroy Hills honey is largely collected by the Mallaiali race, and is seemingly the product of three species of bees. Mr. Fischer had some hives of bees from Europe, but by day the bee eater birds and king-crows largely destroyed them, and moths at night stole the honey. Once, on examining the hive, he found a moth had succeeded in forcing its way into the hive. The bees had killed it there, but as they could not cast it out, they enclosed it in a wax tomb: The honey-yielding Apis dorsata, A. bicolor, A. Indica, A. nigripennis, and A. socialis, occur in the south of India and Ceylon.
Sir Samuel Baker, in his book, Eight Years in Ceylon, refers to the Bambera (A. dorsata) as follows :—‘ The largest and most extensive honey maker is the Bambera. This is nearly as large as a hornet, and it forms its nest upon the bough of a tree, from which the comb hangs like a Cheshire cheese, being about the same thickness, but five or six inches greater in diameter. The honey from this bee is not so much esteemed as that from the smaller varieties, as the flavour partakes too strongly of the particular flower which the bee has frequented ; thus in different seasons the honey varies in flavour, and is sometimes so highly aperient that it must be used with much caution. The wax of the comb is the purest and whitest of any kind produced in Ceylon.' It is supposed to range the Archipelago, Siam. A. dorsata and A. Indica have been introduced into Europe, and the Cyprian bee into Ceylon. In Europe, the gold-banded Ligurian is prized.