506 BURSERACEZ OR AMYRIDACEA, 
Properties and Uses.—The plants are generally remarkable 
for their bitterness. Some have been employed as tonics and 
astringents; others, as Gomplhia parviflora, yield oil, which is 
used in Brazil for salads. In their properties generally, the 
Ochnaceze much resemble the Simarubacee. 
Order 14. BuRSERACE® or AMYRIDACES, the Myrrh Order. 
—Character.—Trees or shrubs, abounding in a fragrant gum- 
resinous or resinous juice. Leaves compound, alternate or oppo- 
site, frequently dotted and stipulate. lowers perfect, or rarely 
unisexual. Calyx persistent, with 2—5 divisions. Petals 3-—5, 
arising from the calyx below the disk; exstivation valvate, or 
occasionally imbricate. Stamens twice as many as the petals, 
perigynous. Disk perigynous. Ovary 1—5-celled, superior, 
sessile, placed in or upon the disk ; ovules in pairs, attached to a 
placenta at the apex of the cell, anatropous. Fruit dry, 1—5- 
celled; epicarp often splitting in a valvular manner. Seeds 
exalbuminous ; radicle superior, turned towards the hilum. 
Distribution and Numbers.—They have been only found in 
the tropical regions of America, Africa, and India. Illustrative 
Genera :—Boswellia, Roxb.; Balsamodendron, Kunth. There 
are about 60 species. 
Properties and Uses.—The plants of the order appear to be 
almost universally characterised by an abundance of fragrant 
resinous or gum-resinous juice. Some are considered poisonous ; 
others bitter, purgative, or anthelmintic; and a few furnish 
useful timber. 
Amyr's.—A. hexandra and A. Plumieri have been stated to yield a por- 
tion of the Elemi of commerce, but there is no proof whatever of such being 
the case.—A. elemifera, of Royle, vields Mexican or Vera Cruz Elemi.—A. 
balsamifera is said to furnish one kind of Lignum Rhodium, but on no 
sufficient authority.—A. toxifera, as its name implies, is régarded as 
poisonous. This genus is now sometimes placed in Rutacee. 
Balanites xgyptiaca has slightly acid leaves, which are reputed to be 
anthelmintic, while the unripe fruits are acrid, bitter, and purgative ; they are 
eaten, however, when ripe. The seeds of this plant also yield by expression 
a fixed oil of a fatty nature, called zachun in Egypt, where the plant is 
cultivated. 
Balsamodendron or Balsamodendrum.—B. Myrrha is generally regarded 
as supplying the gum-resin known in commerce under the name of Myrrh. 
It is called in Hebrew mor or mur, and is mentioned in the Old Testament 
for the first time in Gen. xxxvii. 25; hence it must have been in use for 
more than 3,500 years. The plants yielding the different kinds of Myrrh, 
although it is not yet positively known from whence they are derived, are 
natives of Somali-land and the adjoining parts of Arabia. But from recent 
investigations it would appear certain that the official or African Myrrh is 
the produce of B. Myrrha; that kind known as Arabian Myrrh being also 
derived from the same or a nearly allied species; and that of East Indian 
Myrrh or Bissa Bol from probably B. Kataf, Kunth. Other species yield 
similar products. The botanical source of the Stacte or Liquid Myrrh of the 
ancients, and which entered into the composition of the holy incense in use 
by the Jews, is entirely unknown, for no drug of modern ‘times has been 
identified with it. Medicinally, myrrh is regarded as tonic, stimulant, ex- 
