78 BALSAM-BOO. 



various parts of this vegetable mass. The plants stand apart from one 

 another, varying from two to four feet in height, and though often he- 

 mispherical, are at times much broader than high^ and from eight to 

 ten feet wide in the greatest diameter. The very old ones begin to 

 decay near the ground, where a crumbling away commences all round ; 

 and having but a narrow attachment, they resemble immense balls or 

 spheres, laid upon the earth. Upon close examination, each mass is 

 found to be herbaceous throughout, the outer coat formed of innume- 

 rable little shoots, rising to the same height, covered with imbricated 

 leaves, and so densely packed that it is even difficult to cut out a por- 

 tion with a knife, while the surface is of such uniformity that Lichens 

 sometimes spread over it, and other plants vegetate on its surface, in 



the occasional holes or decayed places, 



" If at a very early period a young plant of the Bolax be removed 

 and inspected internally, the origin of these great balls may be traced ; 

 for each of them, however large, is the product of a single seed, and 

 the result of many, perhaps hundreds of years' gi'owth. In a young 

 state, the plant is furnished with a very long, slender, perpendicular 

 root, like a whip-lash, that penetrates the soil, producing at its summit 

 two or three small branching stems, which divide again and again, 

 radiating regularly from the centre, instead of being prolonged verti- 

 cally ; these send out lateral shoots from their apices, and in such num- 

 bers that the mass is rendered very dense, and by the time the plant has 

 acquired the diameter of a foot, it is quite smooth and convex on the 

 surface. The solitary root has become evidently insufficient for the 

 wants 0^ the mass of individuals, which are now nourished by fibrous 

 radicles, proceeding from below the leaves, and deriving nutriment 

 from th^ quantity of vegetable matter which the decayed foliage of the 

 lower part of the stems and older branches affords. The species yields 

 a gum, which is white when oozing from the stems and leaves, but soon 

 turns red-brown on drying. It has been used as an application to cuts 

 and other lesions with apparent effect," 



Living, or dead and dried, it could not but be desirable that so re- 

 markable a vegetable production should be brought to England ; but 

 all our attempts to procure it were in vain till the present time (Fe- 

 bruary, 1855), when the late Grovernor of the islands, George Rennie, 

 Esq., had the extreme kindness, and with no small labour and expense, 

 to bring home with him a very fine specimen for the museum of the 



