ELEMI. 153 



the resins anciently designated Anivii,^ is the exudation of Bosivellia 

 Frereana Birdwood, a remarkable tree gregarious on the bare limestone 

 hills near Bunder Murayah to the west of Cape Gardafui. The tree 

 which is called Yegaar by the natives, is of small stature, and differs 

 from the other, species of Bosiuellm growing on the same coast in having 

 glabrous, glaucous leaves with obtuse leaflets, crisped at the margin.' 

 The bark is smooth, papery, and translucent, and easily stripped off in 

 thin sheets which are used for writing on. Though growing wild, the 

 trees are said by Capt. Miles ^ to be carefully watched and even some- 

 times propagated. The resin exudes after incision in great plenty, soon 

 hardens, and is collected by the Somali tribes who dispose of it to 

 traders for shipment to Jidda and ports of Yemen : occasionally a 

 package reaches London among the shipments of olibanum. It is used 

 in the East for chewing like mastich. 



In modern times Luban Mati has been mentioned by Wellsted in 

 his "Travels in Arabia" (1838). 



Luban Meyeti occurs in the form of detached droppy tears and 

 fragments, occasionally in stalactitic masses several ounces in weight. 

 It breaks very easily with a brilliant conchoidal fracture, showing an 

 internal substance of a pale amber yellow and perfectly transparent. 

 Externally it is more or less coated with a thin opaque white crust, 

 which seen under the microscope appears non-crystalline. Many of the 

 tears have pieces of the thin, brown, papery bark adhering to them. 

 The resin has an agreeable odour of lemon and turpentine, and a mild 

 terebinthinous taste. 



Treated with alcohol ('838) it is almost entirely dissolved ; the very 

 small undissolved portion is not crystalline. The former agrees with 

 the formula C'*'H*'0'. 20 lb. of Luban Mati yielded us 10 ounces of a 

 volatile oil ( = 3'1 per cent.) having a fragrant odour suggestive of elemi 

 and sp. gr. 0"856 at 17° C. The oil examined in a column 50 mUlim. 

 long, deviates the ray 2°'5 to the left. By fractional distillation we 

 found it to consist of dextrogyre hydrocarbon, C^'IT®, mixed with an 

 oxj'genated oil which we did not succeed in isolating ; the latter is 

 evidently Isevogyre, and exists in proportion more than sufficient to 

 overcome the weak dextrogyre power of the hydrocarbon. 



There is no gum in this exudation; it is therefore essentially 

 different from olibanum, the product of closely allied species of 

 Bosivellia* 



olibanum :7neye/i perhaps from Jebel Meyet, -Figured in Birdwood's paper, Trans. 



a mountain of 1200 feet on the Somali Coast Linn. Soc. xxvii. (1870) tab. 32; also, 



in long. -47^ 10'. (reduced) in Cooke's report on the Gums, 



^ By the assistance of Professor G. Plan- Resins, etc., of the India Mtiseum, 1874, 



chon we have ascertained that it is identi- plate iv. 



cally the same substance as described by ^ Joum. Geograph, Soc. xlii. (1872) 61. 



Guibourt under the name Tacamaque * Fluckiger, on Luban Mati and Oliba- 



jaune huileuse A. — Hist, des Drogues, iii. num, Pharm. Joum. viii (1878) 805, with 



(1850) 483. sketch map of the Somali Coast. 



