XVI. 



258 BALSAM. 



LIB. iv. wag sma ]i ? an d fashioned like to a vine (as Plinie reporteth, 

 wlio had seene it), and those that at this day that have seene 



cant. i. them in the East, say as much. As also the holy Scripture 

 calles the place where the balsam grows, Vine of Engaddi, 

 for the resemblance it hath to vine. At the Indies I have 

 seene the tree from whence they draw the balsam, which is 

 as bigge as a pomegranate tree, and some thing neere the 

 fashion; and if my memory failes me not, it hath nothing 



strab., lib. common with the vine, although that Strabo writes that the 

 ancient tree of balsam was of the bignes of a pomegranate 

 tree. But in other respects they are much alike, as like 

 wise they be in their admirable smells, and in the cure and 

 healing of wounds, in colour and substance, seeing they 

 report of other balsams that there is some white, vermilion, 

 greene, and blacke, the which is likewise seene in that of 

 the Indies. And as they drew forth the balsam of the old 

 world by cutting and making incisions in the barke, to cause 

 the liquor to distill out, so do they with that at the Indies, 

 although it distilles in greater aboundance. And as in the 

 ancient there is one kinde which is pure, the which they 

 call Opobalsamum, which be the very teares that distill, so 

 as there is another sort which is not so exquisite, the which 

 they drawe from the barke and leaves strained and boiled 

 on the fire, the which they call Xilobalsamum. The like is 

 also in the Indian balsams. There is one pure that distilles 

 from the tree, and others that the Indians draw out by 

 straining and boiling the leaves and wood; yea, they do 

 sophisticate and augment it with other liquors, to make 

 it increase. It is not without reason they call it balsam, 

 for in truth it is so (although it be not of the same 

 kinde of the ancient), yet it is much esteemed and 

 should be more, if the great aboundance were not the 

 cause, as in emeraldes and pearles. That which im- 

 portes most, is the vse wherein it is imployed, for in 

 cense in the Church. The Apostolike See hath given 



