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BALSAM TREES OF SCINDE. 263 
growing plentifully upon the shores of the sea of Umán (the sea on the 
E. coast of Arabia) and in Sanjar (Khorasan?) and India. Its general 
characteristic is bitterness, and it is of many kinds, as e. g., Ist the 
Muki-i-arzak (bluish Bdellium) in colour reddish and bitter; 2nd 
Muki el Yahid (Jew's Bdellium), of a yellowish tinge; 3rd Muhi-i- 
Sakalbi, which is clouded, impure, black, and soft; 4th Mukl-i- Arabi 
(Arabian Bdellium) which*grows in Yemen, and is of the colour of the 
Badanjan (ripe fruit of the Egg-plant, i.e., greenish-black). The best 
kind is clear, pure, and brilliant, viscous, adhesive, soft, sweet-smelling, 
yellow, and bitterish. When thrown upon the fire it emits an odour 
like the laurel, and readily dissolves in water. It must be unmixed 
with wood, straws, sand, earth, or such matters. Its properties last for 
twenty years. When old its bitterness increases; and the older it is 
the darker it becomes, exchanging its softness for dryness and hard- 
ness, especially the Arabic, as they mix it with myrrh.” 
My friend Assistant-Surgeon Carter showed me fine specimens of the 
“Mukul”? gum collected by him on the southern coast of Arabia, 
together with numerous other gums, all accompanied by admirable 
drawings of the trees producing them. ‘There is, therefore, some error 
in the statement of Dr. Malcolmson (Royle's Materia Medica) that 
Bdellium is not produced in Arabia. 
Moreover, the ** Mukul” and the tree producing it, are, from Dr. 
Carter's specimens, identical with the Scinde Googul and its tree, as 
might be expected from the great similarity between the vegetation of 
the rocky part of Scinde and that of Arabia. The range of our Googul 
Tree is therefore—Arabia (Dr. Carter); and, according to my own obser- 
vations, in rocky ground throughout Scinde, at Deesa in Marwar, and 
lately in Beloochistan Proper. It flowers in March and April, and the 
leaves and young shoots appear in April and May. In sheltered situ- 
ations, as under the bank of a water-course, it may be found in fruit, 
flower, and leaf, for the greater part of the year. 
REFERENCE To tur FrevREs. Tab. VIII. Specimens in different 
states of leaf, flower, and fruit, nat. size; Fig. 1, male flower; f. 2, 
section of ditto; f. 8, section of female flower ; f. 4, sterile stamens; 
f. 5, section of fruit, with two carpels ; f. 6, ditto with three carpels, 
(all magnified) ; f. 7, fruit, nat. size; f. 8. 8, epicarp of the ripe fruit 
as it separates into two valves, leaving exposed ; f. 9, the pulpy fruit, 
nat. size. 
