STYRAX LIQUIDUS. 271 



HAMAMELIDE^. 



STYRAX LIQUIDUS.i 



Balsamum Styracis ; Liquid Storax ; F. Styrax liquide ; 

 G. Flilssiger Storax. 



Botanical Origin — Liquidambar orientalis Miller (Z. imberbe 

 Aiton, a handsome, umbrageous tree resembling a plane, growing to 

 the height of 30 to 40 feet or more,"^ and forming forests in the extreme 

 south-western part of Asia Minor. In this region the tree occurs in the 

 district of Sighala near Melasso, about Budrum (the ancient Halicar- 

 nassus) and lyioughla, also near Giova and Ull^ in the Gulf of Giova, 

 and lastly near Marmorizza and Isgengak opposite Rhodes. It also 

 grows in the valley of the El-Asi (the ancient Orontes), as proved by a 

 specimen in the Vienna herbarium, collected by Godel, Austrian Consul 

 at Alexandretta. In this locality it was seen by Kotschy in 1835, but 

 mistaken for a plane. The same traveller informed one of us that he 

 believed it to occur at Narkislik, a ^'illage near Alexandretta. 



The tree is not known to grow in Cyprus, Candia, Rhodes, Kos, or 

 indeed in any of the islands of the Mediterranean.^ 



History — Two substances of different origin have been known from 

 a remote period under the name of Styrax or Storax, namely the resin 

 of Styrax officinalis L. (see further on), and that of Liquidumbar 

 onetitalis Miller, the latter commonly distinguished as Liquid Storax. 



According to Krinos of Athens, who has carefully investigated the 

 history of the drug,* the earliest allusions to Liquid Storax occur in the 

 writings of Aetius and of Paulus -^gineta,^ who name both Storax and 

 Liquid Storax {irvpa ^vypog). Of these Greek physicians, who lived 

 respectively in the 6th and 7th centuries, the second also mentions the 

 resin of Zvyla, which is regarded by Krinos as synonymous with the 

 latter substance.^ 



We find in fact the term Sigia frequently mentioned by Rhazes (10th 



^ The feminine gender of Styrax has same opinion is adopted by Boissier, Flora 



been in use for a long time. In Greek it Oriental^, ii. (1872) 8319. 



denotes the tree, as also does sometimes * Utpl Sru/oaKos, oia-rpL^i] (papnaKo- 



the masculine gender, the neutral being ypaipiKit, iv 'AOrivai^, 1862. — This pamphlet 



reserved to the resin. In Latin the resin is also the subject of a paper of Prof. 



is masculini generis (Dr. Rice). Planchon, Joiirn. de Pharm. 24 (1876) 172! 



2 For a good figure of L. orientalis, see 243. 



Hooker's Icones Plantarum (3rd series, ^ Medicce Artis Prindpes post Hippo- 



1867) pi. 1019, or Hanbury, Science Papers, cratem et Galenum, Par. 1567. — Aetii tetr. 



1876. 140; also Bentleyand Trimen, Medi- 4. serm. 4. c. 122 ; P. ^^oineta, De re med 



cinal Plants, part 27 (1877). vii. 20. o . 



* The fine old trees existing at the con- ^ The foliage of the Liquidamabar much 



vent of Antiphoniti on the north coast of resembles that of the common maple (Acer 



Cyprus, and at that of Neophiti near cam/)^s<re L.) ; hence the two trees as well 



Papho, specimens of which were distri- as the plane {Platanus orientalis L.) are 



buted by Kotschy as Liquidambar imberbis confounded under one name, Zuyos or 



Ait., agree in all points with the American Zuyia. So Styrax officinalis L., from the 



L. stryacijlua L., and not with the Asiatic resemblance of its leaves to those of Pirns 



plant. Kotschy has told me that they have Cydonia L., is known in Greece as 'Xypia 



certainly been planted, and that no other ex- Kv^ima, i.e. vnld quince. 

 amples exist in the island.— D. H. The 



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