3l8 PLANTS PRODUCING GUMS AND RESINS 



extraction is begun again. The product is collected in this way until 

 the commencement of the April rains. 



" The balsam is cleaned and clarified. It is of an amber colour and 

 turns brown as it cools; at the end of a few weeks the colour is dark 

 brown. 



" A good tree, well treated, may go on yielding for thirty years, and 

 then, after five to six years' rest, continue yielding for several years 

 more. The wounds take two years to heal and become covered with 

 bark again, so that tapping may go on for several years provided 

 the trees are allowed to rest from time to time." 



We see from de Cordemoy's work that the pericarp of the fruit 

 contains also secretory pouches filled with a purer balsam than that 

 derived from the trunk. In the State of Salvador this goes by the 

 name of balsamo bianco. It is obtained by hot compression. It is a 

 granular, crystalline mass, golden-yellow in colour, and semi-fluid, 

 but hardens on drying; its delicate perfume recalls that of coumarin. 

 It is a rare product, almost unknown commercially. 



Peru balsam, properly so called, is a thick liquid rather resembling 

 molasses, but less viscous. In bulk it appears to be black, but in 

 a thin layer it is of a dark orange-brown colour and perfectly trans- 

 parent. Its chemical composition and its properties are absolutely 

 analogous to those of Tolu balsam and it serves the same purposes. 



We know, through a Papal bull preserved in the archives of 

 Tzalco, that black balsam [balsamo negro) used to be held in such high 

 esteem that both Pius IV, in 1562, and Pius V, in 1571, authorized 

 the clergy to make use of this precious balsam in the consecration of 

 holy oil {sagrada chrisDia)^ and declared it to be a sacrilege to harm 

 or destroy the trees which produced it. Copies of these bulls are said 

 to be still in existence in Guatemala. 



Myroxylon toluiferum — This is a tree which inhabits Equatorial 

 America. It has imparipinnate leaves, apd transparent glands occur 

 scattered about the leaflets. The pod is 6 to 8 cm. long, flattened, 

 winged, and swollen at the extremity. 



As early as the sixteenth century a Spanish doctor, Monardes, 

 mentions the exploitation of thds plant in a district near Cartagena 

 called Tolu, hence the name of Tolu balsam. Some years before 

 detailed knowledge of this tree was made available, i.e., in 1868, 

 Weir had described the method which the natives of the right bank 

 of the Magdalena used in collecting the product. We will borrow 

 the description reproduced by de Cordemoy with some notes on the 

 composition of the balsam. 



Two deep grooves are cut obliquely in rhe soft, yellowish-brown 

 bark with their two ends meeting to form an acute angle. V-shaped 

 incisions are made all round the trunk and a small calabash is fixed' 

 to receive the resinous liquid which is exuded. 



From time to time a collector visits the trees accompanied by a 

 donkey carrying a pair of large leather bottles, into which he empties 

 the contents of the calabashes. In these leather bottles the balsam 

 is conveyed to the export centres, where it is transferred to tin 

 cylinders and forwarded to Europe. 



