606 ORD. XXXVII. Dumose. amyris GILEADENSIS. 
The Balsam which one tree yields is very small,* and the col- 
lecting of it is tedious andtroublesome: hence it is so very scarce 
that the genuine Balsam is rarely if ever exported in a com- 
mercial way." The best Balsam, according to Alpinus, is at first 
turbid and white, of a very strong pungent smell, like that of 
‘turpentine, but much sweeter and more fragrant, and of a bitter, 
acrid, astringent taste: on being kept for some time, it becomes 
thin, limpid, light, of a greenish hue, and then of a gold yellow, 
after which it grows thick like turpentine, «and loses much of its 
fragrance. Some compare the smell of this Balsam to that of 
citrons ; others to that of a mixture of rosemary and sage flowers. 
The chief mark of its goodness is said to be founded on this, that 
when dropped on water it spreads itself all over the surface, 
forming a thin pellicle, tough enough to be taken up upon the 
point of a pin, and at the same time impregnating the water with 
its smell and flavour.* 
It appears on scripture authority, that the great value and use 
“of this drug-remounts to'very early ages,‘ as it seems coeval with 
the India trade for pepper. virtues and 
medicinal uses still attributed to it ey eastern nations, would be 
outraging the bounds of all rational credibility: but they who 
are desirous of this information may be gratified by consulting 
Alpinus. ‘European physicians consider it to be not essentially 
different from other resinous fluids, or turpentines, especially as 
* Three or four drops a day are said to be the usual quantity obtained from one 
branch; nor does the most fertile tree ever yield more than sixty in that time, 
See Gerlachs Tagebuch s. Reise nach Constantinopel. p. 227. 
4 Lady Mary Wortley Montague says, that even at Constantinople it was not 
without difficulty procured. See Letters, vol. ti. p. 116. 
© This test of the goodness of the Balsam, which is mentioned by Alston, is not 
‘to be depended upon, as ‘several resinous fluids, and even oil of juniper, produce 
the same phenomena. 
* Balm and Myrrh were carried by the Ishmaclites to Egypt. See Gen. © 
rere. v. 25, 
ee Se 
