257 
On two Barsam TREES (BALSAMODENDRA) from Scinde ; by 
J. Exterton Stocks, M.D., F.L.S., <Assistant-Surgeon on the 
Bombay Establishment, Inspector of Forests in Scinde. 
(Tab. VIII. and IX.) 
[Oss. There are few vegetable products that require a more careful 
investigation than the plants yielding the celebrated gum-resins of 
commerce—familiar to us under the name of Myrrh and the Bdellium 
or Googul (Moog! of the Arabians, 88euov and padeAxoy of Dioscorides, 
according to the accurate Dr. Royle’s researches). We are therefore 
or Googil of Scinde. In the MS., however, this gentleman had called the 
plant by the name of Balsamodendron Roxburghii, from an idea that it 
was identical with the B. Roxburghit of Arnott (the Amyris Commiphora 
of Roxburgh,) a native of North-eastern Bengal. A comparison of 
product ; as, for example, the Googul or Googil of the Coromandel coast, 
which Dr. Stocks observes is the Boswellia glabra. But it is extremely 
improbable that a plant of the North-eastern frontier of Bengal should 
be identical with one of Seinde, where the vegetation bears a striking 
resemblance to that of Syria or Arabia. Dr. Roxburgh, too, observes that 
though his plant, when broken or bruised, diffuses a grateful fragrance, 
like that of the finest myrrh, yet that “the juice never congeals, but is 
carried off by evaporation, leaving little or nothing behind; and all 
that he could ever procure was a very minute portion of gummy matter, 
which certainly resembles myrrh both in smell and appearance, but has 
no tendency to be even tenacious or elastic." The excellent Dr. Royle, 
however, rather inclines to the opinion that this tree, when old, does 
yield a gum-resin, closely resembling myrrh, because that which he ex- 
amined **was said to come from the hills, at the foot of which the 
tree is found." Be that as it may, it is very certain that the Mukul 
or Googul Balsam tree of the Persian gulf, here described by Dr. Stocks, 
is a very distinct species; and the gum-resin it yields is much more 
likely to be that of the ancient writers on the subject, for it is assuredly 
the genuine Googul of the “Bazaars of Hydrabad and Kurrachee,” and 
that which is exported from — I have ventured to give it the 
VOL. I. 
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