142 



BURSERACEi^. 



Arabian traders, with whom the Chinese had constant intercourse during 

 the middle ages. Myrrh in fact is still somewhat largely consumed in 



China.^ 



Myrrh is from the Hebrew and Arabic 



bitter, whence also the Greek o-fivpva. The ancient Eg}^tian 



Sansk 



the Persian and Indian 



ords Bol, Bola, and Heera-hol, well-known names for myiTh. 



more valuable than myrrh itself. The author of i 

 Erythrean Sea represents it as exported from Muza 

 Avith mjTrh. Theophrastus' speaks of myrrh as of i 

 liquid. No drug 

 li 



lyrrh 



i4uia. no arug oi modern times has been identitied w^itn tne smm yi 

 iqmd myrrh of the ancients: that it was a substance obtainable in 

 [uantity seems evident from the fact that 150 pounds of it, said to bo 

 he offering of an Egyptian city, were presented to St. Silvester at Rome. 



quantity 

 the offeri__^ „^ 

 A.D. 314-335/ 

 The myrrh 

 The author of 

 been an ex 



Arabi^ 



ueua an export ol Abalites, Malao, and Mosyllon (the last-namea m 

 modern Berbera), ancient ports of the African coast outside the straite 

 ot iJab^el-Mandeb; and he even mentions that it is conveyed by small 



vessels to the opposite shores of Arabia.' 

 Secretion 



Secretion— Marchand^ who examined and figured the sections of 

 a branch of three years' growth of B. Myrrha, represents the gum-rfi" 

 as chiefly deposited in the cortical layers, with a little in the medulla. 



Collection— By the Somal tribe myrrh is largely collected as it 

 flows mit, incisions, according to Hildebrandt, being never practised. 

 J^ioin the information o-iVpti h^r 17.T^T.^-r,T^ovn. +/^ ATonc vn-n ■Rsenbeck, ii' 



Esen 



a 



i'roin the information 

 pp tnat myrrh wucn iu nrsi exuaes is oi an vny i^'-'-''- "- — ,. i 



Diittery appearance, yellowish white, gradually assuming a golden tmi 

 and becoming reddish as it hardens It exudes from the bark lAe 

 f}fP 1^%^'''^' ^""^ becomes dark and of inferior value by age- 

 Although Ehrenberg says that the myrrh he saw was of fine quaiit)' 



ne does not mention if >>mr,r, ^04-1,^^^.1 i.„ j.t j-4,.^c. 



collected, 



■L 1 ^ — '-^^a '^'^j'^ uuai Lilt; inyrrii lie «a.w was 



w-l^ mention it being gathered by the natives. 



Witn reorard in fha i^«„iu:„„8 • „i ■ -i iv„ ,7,. 



to the localities^ in which the drug is 



r^ 1.1 i —8"^^ ^^ uie localities" m winch the cirug it' ^-"- . 

 Oruttenden,» who visited the Somali coast in 1843, says that mrrh ^ 

 brought from the Wadi NogM, south west of Cape Gardafui, and jiom 

 i mrreyhan, Ogadain and Agahora ; and that some few trees 

 on the mountains >^o"h;^/i -d„„j„„ St 1 n/r_- „ xTowi^ 



•e found 



Murayah. Major Harris 



Iba. 

 ea ty 



^"•. V.CO xii uie iiaei desert e 

 ^ay from Tajura to Shoa. 



of my;rS^^''y"^P?^^f i"^ ^872, 18,600 

 fomin China for 1872, p. 4. 



be identical S a nui f ii\'"PP°'^*^ *° 



name lyin. aW 20^^? '^"^^ >^?''^"g ^^""^ 



' Lib. ix c f ^'^^^ ""^ ^^°^^*- 



95. ^''^"^'™^' ^'"^^ PontificaUs, i. (1724) 

 ' Vmceut, op. at. ii. 127. 139. 135. 



J 



O 



F 



« Recherches sur VOnjanisatlon 



seracde,% Paris, 1868, p. 42, pi- »• 



7 Op. cit. at p. 140, n?t« ;• ,. ^ 

 ^PA nnnpr with mat) in Oce 



dex ^«'- 



7 Op. cit. at p. 140, note 1. ^. t^yi, 



8 See paper with map m Ocean ^'l\'l 



April, 1873, also Fharm. Jf ':"• J papers 

 1873. 821, and Haubury's Saence ^«P" 



?17« .. nsJfi) 



378. „, ,4i (1^6) 



9 Trans, Bumhay Geogr. &oc. ■ 



123. . ,1^441 i.^-''*' 



i 



* 4 



11 



