178 MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



dining to black, and of an agreeable aromatic smell, and a very hot 

 pungent taste. 



Balsam of Peru is a very warm aromatic medicine, hotter than 

 any of the other natural balsams j hence, in cold phlegmatic habits, 

 it has been given to warm the constitution, strengthen the nervous 

 system, and attenuate viscid humours. It has been also used by sur- 

 geons in certain wounds and ulcers. 



The white balsam of Peru, or white storax, is brought here in 

 gourd shells, and is of a pale yellow colour, thick, and tenacious* 

 becoming by age solid and brittle. 



This balsam is less hot than the former, but of a more agreeable 

 fragrant smell, approaching somewhat to that of storax. 



[Mutis, Woodville. Zea. 



section xv. 

 Balm, or Balsam of Gilead Tree* 



Arayris Gileadensis. Woodv. 



Of this valuable genus nineteen species have been collected in 

 Asia, Africa, and America, almost all of which produce a consi- 

 derable quantity of terebinthinate rosin or balsam, and several of 

 them of a very grateful taste or flavour. The following are chiefly 

 worthy of notice: 1. a. elemifera, yielding the officinal gum-elemi ; 

 2. a. gileadensis, balsam of Gilead-tree, balsam of Mecca, or Tur- 

 key-tree, so called from its yielding this gum ; 3. a. toxifera, poi- 

 son-ash, yielding a liquid gum as black as ink ; 4. a. balsarnifera- 

 rosewood ; an elegant and odoriferous Jamaica tree, of late much 

 and deservedly esteemed by our cabinet-makers. A. toxifera, 

 though poisonous to animals in general, affords a fruit that is nutri- 

 tive to one or two species of the loxus or grosbeak, which feed on 

 it with great glee. 



The vernacular name for the Amyris Gileadensis, or Balm of 

 Gilead Tree, according to Bruce, is Bilessan. It grows to the 

 height of fourteen feet : its branches are numerous, spreading, 

 crooked : the wood is white, soft, and covered with a smooth ash- 

 coloured bark : the leaves are small, few, commonly consisting of 

 one pair of wings, with an odd one at the top: the wings are ses- 



