182 Linnean Society. [Dec. 19, 1843. 



Court of Shoa in Southern Abyssinia. Communicated by the Se- 

 cretary. 



Major Harris describes the Myrrh-tree {Balsamodendron MyrrJia) 

 as growing abundantly on the Abyssinian coast of the Red Sea to 

 the Straits of Bab el Mandeb, over all the barren hill-sides of the 

 low zone inhabited by the Danakil or Adaiel tribes. It is called 

 Kurbeta, and there exist two varieties ; one producing the better de- 

 scription of the gum being a dwarf shrub, with deeply serrated crisp 

 leaves of a dull green ; while the other, which yields a substance 

 more like balm than myrrh, attains a height of ten feet, and has 

 bright, shining, slightly dentated leaves. The myrrh, called Hofali, 

 flows freely from any wound, in the form of a milky juice, possessing 

 a perceptible acidity, which either evaporates or becomes chemically 

 changed during the formation of the gum. The seasons for collect- 

 ing it are in January, when the buds appear after the first rain ; and 

 in March, when the seeds are ripe. Every passer-by transfers such 

 portions of it as he may find to the hollow boss of his shield, and ex- 

 changes it for a handful of tobacco with the next slave-dealer whom 

 he meets on the caravan-route. The merchants also of the sea-coast, 

 before returning from Abyssinia, send into the forests that gird the 

 western bank of the river Hawash, and bring away considerable 

 quantities of the Hofali, which is sold at a high price. The natives 

 administer it to their horses in cases of fatigue and exhaustion. 



The shrub which produces the balm of Mecca, Balsamodendron 

 Opobalsamum, is found on the opposite Arabian coast at Cape Aden, 

 where it is called Beshcin, either the original of or a derivative from 

 the word Balsam. It is the Balessan of Bruce, who did not meet 

 with the true myrrh-tree. The balm flows copiously from any in- 

 cision, and the aethereal oil speedily evaporating, a tasteless gum 

 remains. 



The Frankincense, Major Harris states, is found chiefly along the 

 Somauli coast, in the neighbourhood of Cape Guardafui. At Bunder 

 Maryah, twenty miles to the S.W. of Ras Feeluk, the mountains are 

 three miles from the shore and attain a height of five thousand feet. 

 Ascending a thousand feet a plain presents itself, bounded on every 

 side by precipitous mountains, studded M'ith the Frankincense and 

 Gum-Acacia trees, although looking bare from the total absence of 

 under- wood. The frankincense-trees invariably grow from the bare 

 and smooth sides of the white marble rocks, or from isolated blocks 

 of the same scattered over the plain, without any soil whatever. 

 From the base of the trunk, and about treble its diameter, a round 

 thick substance is thrown out, of a nature between bark and wood. 



