118 ORD. Terebinthacez. BOSWELLIA SERRATA. 
by minute bracteas; the calyx is monophyllous, five-toothed,* and downy ; 
the corolla composed of five oblong, spreading petals, of a pale pinkish co- 
lour, externally downy ; the nectary is a fleshy, crenulate, coloured cup, ad-. 
hering to the calyx; the ten stamens are alternately shorter, and support ob- 
long anthers; the pistillum consists of an ovate germen, cylindrical style, and 
trilobate stigma; the capsule is smooth, three-sided, three-valved, three-celled, . 
each cell containing one perfect seed only, which is broad, cordate, and 
winged. Figure (a) the capsule, (4) transverse section of the same, (c) a seed 
magnified. 
The gum which exudes from this tree was noticed by Mr. D. Turnbull, 
(surgeon to the Residency at Nagpur) who accompanied Mr. Colebrooke (on 
his journey to Barar, in the year 1798); the former gentleman judged it to 
be olibanum, and so did several intelligent natives; “but,” says Mr. Cole- 
brooke, “the notion prevalent among botanists, that olibanwm is the produce 
of a species of juniper, left room for doubt.”+ I now learn from Mr. Turn- 
bull, that, since his return to his station at Mirzapar, he has procured .con- 
siderable quantities of the gum of this tree, which he has sent to Europe at 
different times; first; without assigning the name of olibanwm, and more 
lately, under that designation. It was in England recognized for olibanum, 
though offered for sale as a different gum; and annual consignments of it 
have been since regularly vended at the East India Company’s sales.t The 
olibanum of commerce is chiefly imported into Europe from India, but is 
also brought from the Levant in casks and chests. “It distils from incisions 
made in the bark of the tree during the Summer months, _ 
Sensible and Chemical Properties, Se. " Olibanum i is a ae brittle 
* «© The fructification is remarkably diversified on the same plant. I have found, even 
on the same raceme, flowers, in which the teeth or lobes of the calyx varied from four to 
ten; the number was generally five, sometimes six, rarely seven, more rarely four, and 
very rarely ten; petals as many as divisions of the:calyx ; stamens twice as many ; cap- 
sule generally three-sided, sometimes four, rarely five-sided, with: as many cells and as 
many valves; seeds generally solitary. : the dissection of the germen does indeed exhibit 
a few in each cell, but only one is usually mature fees Vide Dr. eat Description, 
Asiatic Researches, Vol. ix. p- 380. 
- + Asiatic Researches, Vol. ix. p. 381. 
~ { Formerly, this gum was supposed to be the produce of a species of juniper, (Juni- 
peris Lyeia, vide Vol. i. p. 16. of this work) but Mr. Colebrooke has — proved 
an the tree we have described produces the olibanum which comes from Indi 
