OPOPANAX.—BDELLIUM.—MYRRH. 267 
to be the produce of Boswellia glabra, and that from the Western 
Himalaya of the Boswellia serrata*. This kind of bdellium 
softens in the hand, and has an acrid taste without the aroma of 
myrrh. The odour has a faint resemblance to that of cedar. The 
surface of the pieces frequently has hairs or fragments of a papery 
bark attached to it. Dr. Roxburgh says that the trunk of this 
tree is covered with a light coloured pellicle, as in the common 
birch, which peels off from time to time, exposing to view a smooth 
green coat, which in succession supplies other similar exfoliations fT. 
It is identical with Balsamodendron Mukul, Hooker, which grows 
in Scinde. 
Another bdellium termed “ Googu/,” from Bengal, has been attri- 
buted to Balsamodendron Mukul, Hooker t ; it somewhat resembles 
Indian bdellium in appearance, but (in the specimen in the Museum 
of the Pharmaceutical Society) the odour is different and recalls 
that of Burgundy pitch or castor. From a paper by Dr. Stocks in 
Hooker’s ‘ Journal of Botany,’ i. p. 257, it would appear that this 
tree is not identical with the B. Mukul, which, from the similarity 
of its native name ‘“‘ Googul,”’ has been mistaken for it. 
Dr. Roxburgh § observes, regarding the Bdellium googul, which 
he attributes to Amyris comiphora, that the whole tree, while 
growing, is very odoriferous, and if broken in any part diffuses 
around 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. The googul is collected in the cold 
season by making incisions in the tree and letting the resin fall to 
the ground. Googul is used as incense. It is now many years 
since Dr. Royle remarked that “all the species of this genus re- 
quire to be examined from good and authentic specimens, accom- 
panied by their respective products, as so much doubt still remains 
in the opinions of botanists regarding the trees producing these 
substances.” Even now, in 1892, very little seems to have been 
done to clear up the doubts complained of by Dr. Royle. 
There is an “ opaque bdellium” said to be the produce of Bal- 
samodendron Playfairti, Hooker, met with in North-East India 
* Hall’s ‘Dict. of the Economic Products of India,’ Calcutta, 1889, p. 426. 
+ Flor. Ind. ii. p. 245. 
{ Cooke, ‘ Report on Gum Resins in the India Museum,’ 1874, p. 72. 
§ FL. Ind, il. p. 244. 
