182 MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



is covered with rough thick greyish bark ; the leaves are elliptical 

 or ovate, entire, pointed, alternate, of a light green colour, and 

 stand upon short strong footstalks ; the flowers are numerous, and 

 produced in lateral racemi; the calyx is bell-shaped, divided at 1he 

 brim into five teeth, which are nearly equal, but one is projected 

 to a greater distance than the others : the petals are inserted into 

 the receptacle, and are five in number, of which t four are equal, 

 linear, and a little longer than the calyx : the fifth is much the 

 largest, inversely heart-shaped, and its heel is of the length of 

 the calyx : the ten filaments are very short, and furnished with long 

 antherae : the germen is oblong ; there is no style : the stigma is 

 pointed ; the fruit is a round berry. 



It grows in Spanish America, in the province of Tolu, behind 

 Carthagena, whence we are supplied with the balsam, which is 

 brought to us in little gourd-shells. This balsam is obtained by 

 making incisions in the bark of the tree, and is collected into spoons, 

 prepared for the occasion, from which it is poured into proper 

 vessels. 



This balsam is of a reddish yellow colour, transparent, in con- 

 sistence thick and tenacious : by age it grows so hard and brittle, 

 that it may be rubbed into a powder between the finger and thumb. 

 Its smell is extremely fragrant, somewhat resembling that of lemons; 

 its taste is warm and sweetish, and on being chewed it adheres to 

 the teeth. Thrown into the fire it immediately liquifies, takes flame, 

 and disperses its agreeable odour. Though it does not dissolve in 

 water, yet if boiled in it for two or three hours, in a covered vessel, 

 the water receives its odoriferous smell : water also suffers a similar 

 impregnation from the balsam by distillation. With the assistance 

 of mucilage it unites with water, so as to form a milky solution. It 

 dissolves entirely in spirit of wine, and easily mixes with distilled 

 oils, but less easily with those of the expressed kind. Distilled with- 

 out addition, it produces not only an empyreumatic oil, of a pale 

 dark colour, but sometimes a small portion of a saline matter, 

 similar to that of the flowers of benzoine. 



This balsam possesses the same general virtues with the former, 

 and that of Peru; it is however less heating and stimulating, and 

 may therefore be employed with more, .safety. It has been chiefly 

 used as a pectoral, and is said to be an efficacious corroborant in 

 gleets and seminal weaknesses. It is directed by the Pharmaco* 



