28 M. Bonastre on some 
have found that it was formed from two Greek words, muppas 
myrrh, a perfume, and Baravoc, fructus-glans, fruit; as if they 
had said, fruit or acorn of the tree that produces the myrrh, 
or perfume.* 
Tueopurastus, book ix. chap. iv., informs us that the 
myrrh tree was certainly thorny: ¢doiov axavOusdn wat dv deiove 
Now the Balanistes was thorny also. 
The opinion of Bruce, who attributes the myrrh to a 
species of Mimosa or Acacia, has long been looked upon as 
an error, from the circumstance, as Dr. Duncan very judi- 
ciously remarks, in the Edinburgh New Dispensatory, that 
mimosas furnish but simple gum, and not the gum resin. 
EHRENBERG announces that he has found, both in Nubia 
and Arabia, a shrub from which he has frequently collected 
myrrh, similar to the myrrh of commerce. 
Nees von Esenseck has drawn this shrub from the speci- 
mens introduced by Ehrenberg, and which present the gene- 
ric features of Balsamodendrum, or the Amyris of Linnzus. 
Nees calls it the Balsamodendrum Myrrha. 
But I shall on this subject take the liberty of making an 
observation similar to that of Dr. Duncan’s. The Amyris 
Opobalsamum, or, as it would be better to call it, the Gilead 
Balsamodendrum, will be found, on analysis, to produce but 
pure resin; that is to say, resins or bastard balms, which are 
perfectly soluble in alcohol and ether, and which do not 
contain more gum than the produce of the mimosas would 
resin. Besides, we know, from Puiiny and Dre TuHEvENot, 
that the trees which produce the myrrh and the bdellium 
were thorny, and that they grew in the same wood. 
I have analysed a new species of myrrh that has been lately 
imported, and find that it is composed of several principles, 
as follow: 
Analysis of a new Species of the Myrrh of Commerce. 
Parts. 
(nm, igolubile »: 4). +). «\famerte 
SUMBOMIDLC. 7 (5. , pe tee ; a 
Rosin, soluble, and subresin . 38 
Oil, volatile, fluid MUR MA 50y bc: 
A bitter extract, non-resinous . 4 
Acid, not determined 
Salt, potass base 
chalk 
Silica, adhering only 
waa 
Nn 
100 
* The most part of the other species of the fruit Myrobalanus should have a 
similar etymology. 
