BURSERIACE.S:. I. BOSWELLIA. II. BALSAMODENDRON. 



81 



with vegetable oil for the more useful purpose of marine pitch. 

 Leaves crowded at the ends of the branches, a span long, decidu- 

 ous. Flowers small, white, with a red nectary and yellow anthers. 



Smooth Boswellia. Clt. 1823. Tree 70 feet. 



2 B. HIRSU'TA (Smith, in Rees' cycl. no. 2.) leaflets oblong- 

 lanceolate, hairy, deeply serrated ; racemes axillary, simple, many- 

 flowered. Tj . S. Native of Amboyna. Rumph. amb. 2. t. 51. 

 ex Smith, and therefore Cao&rium hirsiUum,Willd. spec. 4. p. 760. 



I/din/ Boswellia. Tree 50 feet. 



3B.SERRATA(Stack. FIG. 16. 



extr. brue. p. 19. t. 3.) 

 leaflets ovate - oblong, 

 taper-pointed, serrated, 

 pubescent ; racenn-s ax- 

 illary, simple. T;> . S. 

 Native of the moun- 

 tainous parts of India. 

 From this tree is col- 

 lected the gum oliba- 

 num ex Colebr. in asiat. 

 res. 9. p. 377. with a 

 coloured figure. B. 

 thurifera, Roxb. hort. beng. p. 32. Flowers whitish-yellow. 

 It is generally agreed that the gum resin, called olibanum, is the 

 frankincense which was used in the religious ceremonies of the an- 

 cients, but there is not the same agreement as to the plant sup- 

 posed to produce it. Linnaeus has referred it to the Lycian juniper, 

 and the chemical writers agree with him ; but the French botanists 

 deny it, and say that Linnaeus made the assertion without proof. 

 This remark is evidently well founded. A great degree of 

 obscurity has always hung over this subject ; and we learn from 

 Theophrastus and from Pliny that the Greek writers differed in 

 their description of the tree. Olibanum is named Luban and 

 C'undur by the Arabs. But benzoin having been introduced 

 into general use as incense, in place of Olibamim, the name of 

 Luban is given to that fragrant balsam, but the Mahommedan 

 writers of India on materia medica apply only the term C'undur 

 to Olibanum. From the Hebrew Lebonah or Arabic Luban, 

 the Greeks obtained their names for the tree and gum Libanos 

 and Libanotos. They seem likewise to have been acquainted 

 with the term Cundur, from which Kovcpta is probably derived. 

 The Hindoo writers on materia medica notice a fragrant resinous 

 gum under the name of Cunduru, which their grammarians con- 

 sider as a Sanscrit word, and accordingly date an etymology of 

 it from a Sanscrit root. They concur in declaring it to be the pro- 

 duce of the Sallaci, a tree which they affirm to be vulgarly called 

 Soldi. The tree which is known by that name is the Boswellia 

 serrala. Mr. Turnbull, who was surgeon to the residency of 

 Nagpore in the East Indies, and on his return to the station of 

 Mirzapore he had procured considerable quantities of the gum 

 of the Salai, which he sent to Europe at different times, first 

 without assigning the name of Olibanum, and afterwards under 

 that designation. It was in England recognised for Olibanum, 

 though offered for sale as a different gum ; and annual consign- 

 ments of it have been since regularly sold at the East India 

 Company's sales. The experience of several years at a market 

 such as that of London, where a mistake, if any had been com- 

 mitted, would have been soon discovered, seems to be conclusive. 

 Olibanum is said to be principally collected in Arabia and brought 

 from Mecca to Cairo, from whence it is imported into Europe. 

 It consists of various brittle grains of different sizes, not larger 

 than a chesnut, of a red or yellow colour, having little taste and 

 a peculiar aromatic smell. Newmann got from 480 grains, 346 

 alcoholic and 125 watery extract, and inversely 200 watery and 

 273 alcoholic. The distilled spirit and water both smelt of 

 Olibanum, but no oil separated. Olibanum forms a transparent 



VOL. II. 



solution with alcohol, and a milky fluid when triturated with 

 water ; it is not fusible but inflammable, and burns with an agree- 

 able smell. It is said to be the frankincense of the ancients ; and 

 the diffusion of its vapour around the altar still forms part of the 

 religious ceremonies of the Greek and Roman Catholic churches. 



Serrated-leaved Boswellia. Clt. 1820. Tree 40 feet. 



Cult. A mixture of loam, peat and sand will suit these trees, 

 and ripened cuttings will root in sand, under a hand-glass, in lu-at. 



II. BALSAMODE'NDRON (fromftu\oanoi;balsamon, bal- 

 sam, and cn-ioof, dendron, a tree ; the tree produces the balsam 

 of Mecca). Kunth, gen. tereb. p. 1C. D. C. prod. 2. p. 76. 

 Balsamea, Gled. act. soc. cur. nat. berl. 3. p. 127. 



Lix. SYST. Due'cia, Octandrla. Flowers of separate sexes. 

 Calyx 4-toothed, permanent. Petals 4, linear-oblong, indupli- 

 cately valvate in aestivation. Stamens 8, inserted under the 

 annular disk, with elevated warts between the stamens. Ovary 



I. Style 1, short, blunt. Berry or drupe ovate, acute, 1-2- 

 celled, marked with 4 sutures; cells 1-seeded. Eastern balsam- 

 iferous trees. Leaves with 3-5 sessile, dotless leaflets. This 

 genus is not well known. 



1 B. GILEADE'NSE (Kunth, 1. c.) leaves palmately trifoliate ; 

 leaflets blunt, quite entire; pedicels 1 -flowered, 3 together, 

 shorter than the petiole. ^. G. Native of Arabia, near Haes. 

 Amyris Gileadensis, Lin. mant. 65. Vahl. symb. 1. p. 28. t. 



II. Amyris Opobalsamum, Forsk. descr. p. 79. Flowers small, 

 whitish. The tree which produces the balsam of Gilead has pur- 

 plish branches, but whether it is obtained from the same tree as 

 balsam of Mecca is very doubtful. This substance, which has also 

 the names of Bahamum Judaicum, Syriacwn de Mecca, and Opo- 

 balsamum, is a resinous juice obtained from an evergreen tree, 

 growing spontaneously, particularly on the Asiatic side of the Red 

 Sea, near Mecca. The true Opobalsamum, according to Alpinus, 

 is at first turbid and white, of a very strong pungent smell, like 

 that of turpentine, but much sweeter, and of a bitter, acrid, astrin- 

 gent taste ; vipon being kept for some time it becomes thin and 

 limpid, of a greenish hue, then of a golden yellow, and at length 

 of die colour of honey. The balsam is in high esteem among 

 the eastern nations, both as a medicine and as an odoriferous 

 unguent and cosmetic. But in Europe it is never obtained ge- 

 nuine, and as all the signs of its goodness are fallacious, it has 

 been very rarely employed ; nor need it be regretted, for any of 

 the other resinous fluids will answer equally as well, such as the 

 balsam of Canada or Capaiva. The dried berries were formerly 

 kept under the title of Carpo-balsamum, and the wood under 

 that of Xylo-bahamum. 



Balsam of Gilead. Tree 20 feet. 



2 B. OPOBA'LSAMUM (Kunth, 1. c.) leaves with 1 or 2 pairs of 

 acutish, quite entire leaflets; odd one sessile ; pedicels 1-flowered, 

 shorter than the petioles. Jj . G. Native of Arabia, P. Alp. 

 eg. 2. t. 60. Amyris Opobalsamum, Lin. amoen. 7. p. 68. Ba- 

 lessan, Bruce's trav. French ed. t. 25. This is probably only a 

 variety of the first. 



Var. /3, Meccanense (D. C. prod. 2. p. 76.) leaves bipinnate. 

 Balsamea Meccanensis, Gled. 1. c. 3. p. 127. t. 3. f. 3. 



The Opobalsamum, Balsam of Mecca, and Balsam of Gilead 

 are supposed to be the produce of one and the same tree. 

 Gerlach relates that the tree which produces the Opobalsamum, 

 or Balsam of Mecca, grows near Bederhunin, a village between 

 Mecca and Medina, in a sandy rocky soil, confined to a tract . 

 about a mile in length. In the beginning of April the trees 

 drop their juice, from gashes which are made in the smaller 

 branches, into vessels set under them to receive it. A tree 

 will not yield more than 10 to 15 drachms in one season. 

 The inhabitants use it as a sudorific, particularly in rheumatism, 

 but it is adulterated upon the spot. Lady Mary Wortley Mon- 



