416 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



The resin formerly known in commerce by the 

 name of Strasburg turpentine is a juice of the con- 

 sistence of a fixed oil ; it is of a yellowish white 

 colour, a bitter taste, and a more agreeable smell 

 than common turpentine. It flows from the yew- 

 leaved fir, which is very common in the mountains 

 of Switzerland. This juice is collected in blisters, 

 which appear beneath the bark in the strong heats of 

 summer. The peasants pierce these vesicles with 

 the point of a small horn which becomes filled with 

 the juice, and this is from time to time emptied into 

 a larger vessel *. 



The juice which flows from the larch, or Pinus larix, 

 is called Venice turpentine, but it is improperly so 

 distinguished, since it is produced in some parts of 

 Germany, in the neighbourhood of Lyons, and in 

 the valley of St. Martin, near Lucerne in Switzer- 

 land. This turpentine is much prized in the arts, 

 and is very superior to that produced from the fir- 

 tree. The manner of obtaining this juice is to make 

 incisions in the trunk of the tree about two or three 

 feet from the ground ; narrow troughs twenty inches 

 long are fixed in these, having their lower ends 

 hollowed out in the form of a ladle, through the 

 middle of which a small hole is bored, which afford- 

 ing a passage to the turpentine, this runs into a 

 receiver placed below. The people who gather it 

 visit the trees morning and evening, from the end of 

 May to September, to collect the turpentine out of 

 these receivers. The juice flows out of the tree as 

 limpid as water, but when kept it thickens and 

 becomes of a citron colour. The turpentine flowing 

 naturally is called bijon, and is a kind of balsam, 

 which, it is said, is not inferior in virtue to Peruvian 

 balsam. 



The common turpentine is obtained chiefly from 

 * Chaptal's Elements of Chemistry. 



