Ancient Plants of Egypt. 29 
This species of myrrh does not differ much in its consti- 
tuent parts from the ancient myrrh of Troglodytia; but a 
very important remark, and one first made by myself, is that 
real myrrh turns red, and even blue, on coming in contact 
with nitric acid, placed under certain circumstances, which 
does not happen with the new species. 
We are no more acquainted with the tree that produces 
the myrrh, than we are with the tree that produces the bdel- 
lium; but having been frequently struck with the repeated 
presence of the nuts of the Balanistes Egyptiaca with myrrh 
and bdellium in ancient monuments, and especially in some 
cases of bdellium recently imported into France, I have no 
difficulty in supposing that these balanistes may furnish one 
or the other of these two resinous gums. However, | do not 
lean exclusively to this opinion; and, as the tree is thorny 
according to Theophrastus, the presence of the fruit of the 
balanistes may be accounted for by supposing it to have 
fallen from some neighbouring tree, at the moment the Arabs 
were collecting the crops of myrrh and of bdellium. 
I relate this circumstance to prove to the Medico-Botanical 
Society of London that I have already occupied myself with 
the proposed question. I will also add, that on the depar- 
ture for Egypt, in 1829, of the commission of French savans, 
I gave the necessary instructions for procuring a specimen of 
the tree that produces the real myrrh; but the labours of this 
commission having been directed to objects of antiquity of 
— another nature, I have not been able to obtain the in- 
ormation. On the other hand, the French savans ascended 
the Nile only as far as the second cataract; but it is in amuch 
higher latitude, in a country much more dangerous to tra- 
verse, that the tree grows which produces the real myrrh. I 
possess on this subject some very circumstantial details. 
No. 4 is the Fruit of the Rhamnus Lotus of the famed tree 
of the Lotophagi. 
The fruit of which, sweet as honey, had on foreigners the 
effect of banishing the regret they felt for their country. 
This fruit, as is well known, is a species of the Jujube tree, 
Ziziphus Lotus, or may be that of Nabeca, which has an 
extraordinary sweet taste: it is originally from Africa. ‘The 
nut is hard, and rather of an elongated shape; the kernel has 
become black, through the lapse of ages; its resemblance is 
perfect. This species of lotos, rorogayov devdpor ¢, was found 
ma small votive basket, full of offerings. 
No. 5. Fruit of the Pine, Pinus Pinea. 
It was discovered, as well as a cone of cedar of Lebanon, 
