_The finest flavoured_ and most delicate _honey_ is that which _is collected from aromatic plants_, and has been stored in clean new cells: it has been usually called _virgin-honey_, as though it were elaborated by a fresh swarm of bees; but this is not essential to the perfection of honey, for, provided the cells in which it is deposited have never contained either brood or farina, it is not material whether it have been collected by swarms or by old stocks; the season and the flowers having been the same, the quality of the honey will in both cases be alike. F. Lamberti asserts, that the best honey in the world is produced in Pontus, and that its superiority is attributable to the great quantity of balm growing there. In this quarter of the world, the _Narbonne honey_ is regarded as the finest, owing to the rosemary which abounds in the neighbourhood of Narbonne. "The honey, for which _Narbonne_ is so deservedly celebrated, is every year diminishing. Bees have ceased to be an object of attention to the peasantry; they now devote their time to the vineyards, and neglect the bees. The flowers of the wild plants, in the neighbourhood of Narbonne, are highly aromatic, and give the flavour which is peculiar to its honey: this peculiarity is attributed exclusively to the wild rosemary, _Rosmarinus officinalis_." (Duppa's Miscellaneous Observations and Opinions on the Continent. 1825.) Attempts are said to have been made to imitate Narbonne honey, by adding to other honey an infusion of rosemary flowers.