THE BALSAM TREE. 285 



out culture, in its native country &za.b, and all along the coast to 

 Babelmandel. The trunk is about eight or ten inches in diameter ; 

 the wood light and open, gummy, and outwardly of a reddish col- 

 or, incapable of receiving a polish, and covered with a smooth 

 bark, like that of a young cherry tree. It flattens at top, like trees 

 that are exposed to snow blasts, or sea air, which gives it. a stunted 

 appearance. It is remarkable for a penury of leaves. The flowers 

 are like those of the acacia, small and white, only that three hang 

 upon three filaments, or stalks, where the acacia has but one. Two 

 of these flowers fall off, and leave a single fruit; the branches that 

 bear these, are the shoots of the present year ; they are of reddish 

 color, and tougher than the old wood. After the blossoms, follow 

 yellow, fine scented seed, enclosed in a reddish black pulpy nut, 

 very sweet, and containing a yellowish liquor, like honey. They 

 are bitter, and a little tart upon the tongue ; of the same shape and 

 size of the turpentine tree, thick in the middle, and pointed at the 

 ends. 



There were three kinds of balsam extracted from this tree. The 

 first was called opobalsatnum, and was most highly esteemed. It 

 was that which flowed spontaneously, or by means of incision, 

 from the trunk or branches of the tree in summer time. The sec- 

 ond was carpobalsamum, made by expressing the fruit when in ma- 

 turity. The third, and least esteemed of all, was hylobalsamum, 

 made by a decoction of the buds and small young twigs. 



The great value set upon this drug in the east is traced to the 

 earliest ages. The Ishmaelites, or Arabian carriers and merchants, 

 trafficking with the Arabian commodities into Egypt, brought with 

 them balm, as a part of their cargo, Gen. xxxviii. 25 ; ch. xliii. II. 



Strabo alone, of all the ancienis, has given us the true account of 

 the place of its origin. ' In that most happj land of the Sabaeans,' 

 says he, 'grow the frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon ; and in the 

 coast that is about Saba, the balsam also.' Among the myrrh trees 

 behind Azab, all along the coast, is its native country. We need 

 not doubt that it was transplanted early into Arabia, that is, into the 

 south part of Arabia Felix, immediately fronting Azab, where it is 

 indigenous. The high country of Arabia was too cold to receive 

 it ; being all mountainous : water freezes there. 



Notwithstanding the positive authority of Josephus, that Judea 

 was indebted to Sheba for this tree, Mr. Bruce remarks, that we 

 cannot put it in competition with what we have been told in scrip- 

 ture, as we have just now seen that the place where it grew, and 

 was sold to merchants, was Gilead, in Judea, more than 1730 years 

 before Christ, or 1000 before the queen of Saba ; so that, in read- 

 ing the verse, nothing can be plainer than that it had been trans- 

 planted into Judea, flourished, and had become an article of com- 

 merce in Gilead, long before the period be mentions. 'A compa- 

 ny of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels, bearing 

 spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt,' 

 Gen. xxxvii. 25. Now the spicery, or pepper, he adds, was cer- 



