128 STORAX BARK. 



Levant. When at Toulon in the month of May last, I had the 

 pleasure of visiting in company with M. Chambeiron, an intel- 

 ligent pJiarmacien and botanist of that town, one of the few locali- 

 ties in France where this beautiful plant is indigenous. In the 

 Styrax tree, mountainous woods on the east side of Toulon, in the direction 

 of Cuers, the Styrax abounds. As it is cut periodically for fuel 

 in common with the other trees growing near it, it can seldom 

 attain any very considerable size ; I observed no tree, I should 

 say, exceeding eight or nine feet in height. At the moment of 

 my visit (17th May 1854) the Styrax trees were in full per- 

 fection, presenting with their abundance of orange-flower-like 

 blossoms, a truly beautiful appearance. No trace of resinous 

 exudation could I observe upon the trunk of any, nor did the 

 fresh bark possess the least odour of storax. Of the bark, 

 however, as the opportunity offered, I collected with the 

 assistance of M. Chambeiron an abundant sample, taking it 

 both from young and old wood. After it had been carefully 

 dried by exposure to the air, it had assumed the form of tightly 

 rolled quills ; in this state it is externally smooth and of a dark 

 greyish-brown, on its inner surface greenish ; it is brittle, devoid 

 of odour, and has a slightly bitter, non-aromatic, taste. No odour 

 of storax could be perceived upon heating the bark over a 

 lamp. 



Bark of The bark of Styrax qfficinale grown in France, is therefore a 

 verv diff erent thing from the so-called Storax Bark of the 

 Levant. Whether the latter be really the produce of Styrax 

 ojficinale, and the difference in the two be occasioned merely by 

 climate, age of the trees, or other causes, further researches will, 

 I trust, soon show. Landerer has asserted * that the Styrax tree, 

 inodorous in Greece, becomes fragrant at Cos and Rhodes, 

 affording in these islands the resin Storax which is thence 

 exported. But at Rhodes, at least, the trade in it must be 

 very small indeed, as Mr. Niven Kerr, for many years H.B.M. 

 Consul in that island, recently assured me he was wholly igno- 

 rant of it. 



1 Pereira. op. cit. 



