198 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



ployed by the Roman Catholics in their chapels, for 

 similar uses : when burned, it diffuses a very fragrant 

 smell. This olibanum, or true frankincense, has been 

 supposed to be the produce of the Lycian Juniper, but 

 that plant does not afford any resin. The olibanum now 

 sold in the shops is the produce of the Boswellia serrata, 

 or Salai tree of India. The name of the gum seems to 

 be a contraction of oleum Libani. The resin of the 

 Norway spruce fir is sold under the name of common 

 frankincense. Salmon says the olibanum sold a century 

 ago was so entirely similar to the resin he had himself 

 collected from the berry-bearing cedar, or Juniperus 

 Phoenicea, that when mixed, they could not be separated 

 by picking. 



Dr. Clarke speaks of frankincense as the production of 

 the Acacia Vera : " The Gum Arabic Acacia," says he, 

 " or Mimosa Nilotica, also called the Acacia Vera, pro- 

 duces the frankincense. It grows in great abundance at 

 Cairo : the gum is gathered in vast quantities from trees 

 growing near the most northern bay of the Red Sea at 

 the foot of Mount Sinai, and called Thus by the dealers 

 in Egypt, from Thur and Thor, which is the name of a 

 harbour in that bay ; thereby being distinguished from 

 the gum arabic, which comes from Suez. ' These gums, 1 

 says Hasselquist, ' differ in other particulars besides 

 their localities ; the first being limpid and colourless, the 

 latter less pellucid, and of a brown, or dirty yellow co- 

 lour. We purchased a considerable quantity of the 

 white gum. The fragrant odour diffused in burning it 

 is well known ; but its operation as an enlivener of the 

 spirits in persons of weak health, does not seem to have 

 been much regarded. Perhaps the pleasing antidote it 

 affords to the effects of foul air in crowded assembly 



