328 A COMPENDIUM OF 
GUMATA—GUMS. 
The gums, like other hardened juices ob- 
tained from the vegetable kingdom, have their 
own peculiar characteristics. Although exud- 
ing spontaneously, and becoming hard like 
many of the gum resins, they differ from these 
substances by dissolving in water or forming a 
jelly-Irke mass, which becomes adhesive on 
drying. They are classified into Arabin, the 
soluble series, and Bassorin, the partly soluble 
series. They differ again in their behavior to- 
wards the acetate of lead one of which it pre- 
cipitates. 
Acacia, Gum Arabic, from the Acacia Vera, 
or Verek, and other species of Acacia.—Natu- 
tal order Leguminosee Mimosez, Native of 
and found in eastern and western Africa, in or 
about Kordofan, near the river Senegal. The 
species of Acacia, either shrubs or trees, are 
adorned with bipinnate leaves, entire, and 
somewhat ovoidal in shape. Flowers polyga- 
mous, and usually in racemes or spikes, and 
are found yellow, white or red as to their pet- 
als. Fruit a dry, luguminous pod, bivalved 
