316  BURSERACEZ. 
Vernacular.—The balsam, Balasdn (Arab., Pers., Ind); the © 
fruit, Hab-el-Balasén (Arab., Ind.), Tukm-i-Balasén: (Pers.) ; 
the wood, Ud-i-Balasin (Pers., Ind.). 
History, Uses, &c.—This is the Sadcdyov of the Greeks, 
(Dios. i., 18 ; Theophr. H. P. IX. 1, 2, 6,7,) and the Balsamum > 
of the Romans (Plin. 12, 54). Dioscorides also notices the use 
of the fruit (carpobalsamum) and wood (zylobalsamum). Arabic 
and Persian writers describe the Balsam tree as having hoary 
leaves like rue, and say that it is affected by heat and cold, 
drought and moisture, like a human being. They affirm that 
it sprang from the blood of the slain in Mahomet’s conflict 
with the tribe of Harb, and that the Prophet used the Balsam 
for the resuscitation of the dead. Sheik Dawood of Antioch 
_ says that the Christians have a tradition to the effect that when ~ 
_ the Holy Virgin Mary and our Lord fled to Matriya in Egypt, 
our.Lord washed His clethes at a well, and from the waste 
water which ran upon the ground, the Balsam tree sprang up, 
that on this account the tree is held in great veneration by the 
Christians, who value the Balsam at its weight in gold. The 
wood is called Ud-i-balasdn ; it is heavy and red; with yellow- 
ish bark. Genuine Balasén when thrown into water sinks ; 
cotton dipped in it can be washed quite clean in water; when — 
rubbed upon a. stick and inflamed it should burn without 
injuring the wood, like naphtha. (Makhzan-el-Adwiya, article 
Balasan.) Abd-el-Latif, who lived from 1161 to 1231, has 
described the extraction of the Balsam at the garden of Matriya 
near Cairo. He says that incisions are made with a sharp 
stone through the bark down to the wood, the juice is scraped 
from the tree by the fingers,* and preserved in bottles which 
are buried in the earth for a time, and afterward exposed 
to the sun until all the Balsam has Separated from the 
impurities; it is then. subjected to some secret process 
after which it is stored in the king’s treasury. The annual ~ 
_ produce of the garden is about 20 ratls, (Husn-el-muhdsarin _ 
fi akhbér Misr wa el Kahirah.) The Balsam is also extracted 
= * Theophrastus says ovvés aidnpos, 
