140 BURSERACEiE. 



MYRRHA. 



Gv/mmi-resina Myrrha; Myrrh; F. Myrrhe; G. Myrrhe. 



Botanical Origin — Ehrenberg who visited Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, 

 and Arabia in the years 1820-26, brought home with him specimens of 

 the myrrh trees found at Ghizan (Gison or Dhizan), a town on the strip 

 of coast-region called Tihama, opposite the islands of Farsan Kebir and 

 Farsan Seghir, and a little to the north of Lohaia, on the eastern side 

 of the Red Sea, in latitude 16° 40', and also on the neighbouring 

 mountains of Djara (or Shahra) and Kara. Here the myrrh trees form 

 the underwood of the forests of Acacia, Moringa, and Euphorbia. 

 Nees von Esenbeck who examined these specimens, drew up from them 

 a description of what he called Balsamodendron Myrrha, which he 

 figured in 1828/ 



After Ehrenberg's herbarium had been incorporated in the Royal 

 Herbarium of Berlin, Berg examined these specimens, and came to the 

 conclusion that they consist of two species, namely that described and 

 figured by Nees, and a second to which was attached (correctly we must 

 hope) two memoranda bearing the following words : — " Ijysa MyrrhcB 

 arbor ad Gison, — Martio" and " Ex hwic simillima arbore ad Gison 

 ipse Myrrham effliientem legi.'^ Hcec specimina lecta sunt in montibus 

 JDjara et Kara Februario." This plant Berg named B. Ehrenhergianum:^ 

 Oliver in his Flora of Tropical Africa (1868)^ is disposed to consider 

 Berg's plant the same as B. Opobalsamun Kth., a tree or shrub yield- 

 ing myrrh, found by Schweinfurth on the Bisharrin mountains in 

 Abyssinia, not far from the coast between Suakin and Edineb. But 

 Schweinfurth himself does not admit the identity of the two plants.^ 

 It is certain, however, that the myrrh of commerce is chiefly of African 

 origin. 



Captain F. M. Hunter, Assistant Resident of Aden, informed us*^ 

 that the Arabian myrrh tree, the Didthin, is found not only in the 

 southern provinces of Arabia, Yemen, and Hadramant, probably also in 

 the southern part of Oman, but likewise on the range of hills which, 

 on the African shore, runs parallel to the Somali coast. The Somalis 

 who gather the myrrh in Arabia allege that the Arabian " Didthin" is 

 identical with that of their own district. Its exudation is the true 

 myrrh, " Mulmul" of the Somalis, the "Mur" of the Arabs, or "Heera- 

 bole""^ of the Indians. 



Another myrrh tree, according to Captain Hunter, is growing in 

 Ogadain and the districts round Harrar, that is between the 7th and 

 10th parallels, N. lat., and 43° to 50° E. long. This is the " Habaghadi" 

 of the Somalis, which is not found in Arabia, nor in the coast range of 



^ Planixe Medicinales, Diisseldorf, ii. * Vol. i. 326. 



(1828) tab. 355. ' Petermann, Geogr. Mittheilungen, 1868. 



2 On applying in 1872 to Prof. Ehrenberg 127. 



to know if it were possible that we could ^ Letters addressed in 1877 to F.A.F. 



see this very specimen, we received the ^ Bola, Bal, or Bol were names of the 



answer that it could not be found. myrrh in the Egyptian antiquity. — Ebren- 



3 Berg u. Schmidt, Darstellung n. Be- berg, De Myrrhce et Opocalpasi 



schreibuny . . . offizin. GeicdcJise, iv. (1863) detectis plantis, Berolini, 1841, fol. 



tab. xxix. d.; also Bot. Zeitung, 16 Mai, 

 1862. 155. 



