148 BURSERACE^. 



the 15th century. Thus in a list of drugs sold at Frankfort about 1450, 

 we find Gommi Elempnij} Saladinus,^ who lived about this period, 

 enumerates Gumi Elemi among the drugs kept by the Italian apothe- 

 caries, but we have not met with the name in any other writer of the 

 school of Salerno. The Arbolayre,^ a herbal supposed to have been 

 printed about 1485, gives some account of Gomrtie Elemjyni, stating 

 that it is the gum of the lemon tree and not of fennel as some think, — 

 that it resembles Male Incense, — and makes an excellent ointment for 

 wounds. 



The name Enhcemon * of Pliny, also written Enhcemi, is probably 

 the original form of the word Animi, another designation for the same 

 drug, though also applied as at the present day to a sort of copal. 

 It is even possible that the word Elemi has the same origin.^ 



This primitive Elemi is in our opinion identical with a peculiar soi-t 

 of olibanum known as Luhan Meyeti, afforded by Boswellia Frereana 

 Birdwood (p. 135). It has a remarkable resemblance both in external 

 appearance and in odour to the substance in after-times imported from 

 America, and which were likened to the elemi and animi of the Old 

 World. The description of "gummi elemnia" given by Valerius Cordus,^ 

 the most careful observer of his period, could in our opinion well apply 

 to Luhan Meyeti. (See p. 153 further on.) 



The first reference to Elemi as a production of America comes from 

 the pen of Monardes '' who has a chapter on Animi and Copal. He 

 describes animi as of a more oily nature than copal, of a very agreeable 

 odour, and in grains resembling olibanum but of larger size, and adds 

 that it differs from the animi of the Old World in being less^ white and 

 clear. 



At a somewhat later period this resin and some similar substances 

 began to be substituted for Elemi which had become scarce.^ Pomet,' 

 who as a dealer in drugs was a man of practical knowledge, laments 

 that this American drug was being sold by some as Elemi, and by 

 others as Animi or as Tacamaca. It was however introduced in great 

 plenty, and at length took the place of the original elemi which became 

 completely forgotten. 



American Elemi was in turn discarded in favour of another sort 

 imported from the Philippines. The first mention of this substance is 

 to be found among the descriptions accompanied by drawings sent by 

 Father Camellus to Petiver of London, of the shrubs and trees of Luzon,^" 

 in the year 1701. Camellus states that the tree, which from his drawing 

 preserved in the British Museum appears to us to be a species of 



^ Fluckiger, Die Frankfurter Liste, Halle, gummi ekmi dicti,quasi enhcemi. " — Examm 



1873. 7.. 16. — " Gumi elemi " is also found simplicium, Jjagd. 1537. 386. 



in a similar list of the year 1480, compiled ^ Hist. Stir p. libri iv., edition of Gesner, 



in the town of Nordlingen, Bavaria. See Argentorati, 1561. 209. 



Archiv der Pharm. 211 (1877) 103. ^ Libro de las cosas que se traen de nues- 



2 Compendium Aromatariorum, Bonon. tras Indias Occidentales, Sevilla, 1565. 

 1488. "Thus Piso in 1658 describes the resin of 



3 This very rare volume is one of the an Idea as exactly resembling Elemi and 

 treasures of the National Library of quite as good for wounds. — Hist. nat. et 

 Paris. med. Ind. Occ. 122. 



■• From the Greek ivm/iov, signifying * Histoire des Drogues, 1694, 261. 



blood-stopping. ^°Ray, Hist. Plant, iii. (1704), appendix, 



*Brassavola observes — "quandoque in- p. 67. No. 13. — Compare also p. 60, 



clinavimus ut gummi ole» /Ethiopice esset No. 10. 



