BALSAM OF GJLEAD TREE. 179 



sile, inversely ovate, entire, veined, and of a bright green colour : 

 the flowers are scattered upon the branches, and are of a white 

 colour : the calyx is permanent, and divided at the brim into four 

 small pointed teeth : the petals are four, oblong, concave, patent, 

 white : the filaments are eiht, tapering, erect, and terminated by 

 oblong antherae : the germen is ego-shaped, and placed above the 

 insertion of the corolla : the style is thick, of the length of the fila- 

 ments, and terminated by a quadrangular stigma: the fruit is of the 

 drupaceous kind, roundish, opening by four valves, and containing 

 a smooth nut. 



Mr. Bruce informs us, that Balm-tree is^ a native of Abyssinia, 

 growing among the myrrh-trees behind Azab, all along the coast, 

 to the Straits of Babel mandeb; and that it was early transplanted 

 into the south of Arabia, and into Judea 1000 years before the 

 queen of Saba, who, according to Josephus, gave this tree, among 

 other presents, to king Solomon. 



Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, and even the Arabian physi- 

 cians, supposed this balsam to be the produce of Judea only; and 

 hence it seems to have received the name of Balsamum Judaicum, 

 or Balm of Gilead. Forskal, who first discovered this tree to be- 

 long to the genus Amyris, transmitted a branch of it to Linnaeus, 

 which on being broken smelled slrongly of the balsam ; the leaves 

 were all ternate, a character which corresponds exactly with the 

 specimen in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks. 



Besides this tree, which was found at Gidda, another was observ- 

 ed at Yemen, differing only from that found at Gidda, in having 

 pinnated leaves. The former was first described by Linnaeus in 

 his Mantissa, under the name of A. Gileadensis, the latter under 

 that of A. Opobalsamum; the name which he has adopted in his 

 Materia Medica. 



Whether these two species, the difference of which is supposed to 

 consist merely in the number of their leafits, are really the same or 

 not, we cannot undertake to determine; but judging from analogy 

 we should decide in the affirmative ; for even in the figure of this 

 tree, given by Alpinus, to which Linnaeus refers the A. Opobalsa. 

 mum, the number of the leafits varies much, being five, seven, and 

 sometimes three ; and in that published by Mr. Bruce, the larger 

 leaves consist of five leafits, but the smaller only of three. 



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