59 



N. Ord. BUESERACE^E. 

 Tribe Burserece. 



Genus Balsamodendrum,* Kuntli. B. & H., Gen., i, p. 323 

 (and Hemprichia, p. 327); Berg, in Bot. Zeitung, 1862, 

 p. 153; Baill., Hist., v, p. 310 (Balsamea, Gled. Includes 

 Protium, W. & A.). About 15 species have been described, 

 natives of sub-tropical and tropical Africa, Arabia, and 

 Western India. 



59. Balsamodendrum Opobalsamum,t Kunth, in Ann. Sc. 

 Nat., ser. I, ii, p. 348(1823). 



Balessaiij Bechan (Arabia). Balm of Gilead. Balsam-Tree. 



Syn. Amyris gileadensis and A. Opobalsamum, Linn. Balsamoden- 

 drum gileadense, Kunth. Balsamodendron Ehrenbergianum, Berg. 

 Protium gileadense, Lindl. non W. & A. Balsamea Opobalsamum, 

 Baillon. 



Figures. "Bruce, Travels (1790), Appendix, 2nd and 3rd plates; Wood- 

 ville, t. 214, cop. in Steph. & Ch., t. 157; Nees, t. 356; Berg & Sch., 

 t. 29 d (B. Ehrenbergianum} ; Baill., 1. c., f . 277-279. 



Description. A shrub or small spreading tree, 10 12 feet 

 high, with long, slender, wand-like, irregular branches, without 

 spines ; bark smooth, striate, orange- or purplish-brown, the outer 

 layers peeling off on the old stems ; the twigs irregularly set with 

 short, wart-like branchlets, closely marked with leaf -scars, and 

 producing at their extremities the leaves and flowers. Leaves 

 usually scanty, in fascicles of 2 6 from the extremities of the 

 rudimentary branchlets, generally about an inch long including the 

 long, slender petiole, trifoliolate ; on the young shoots of the year 

 alternate, with long internodes, often pinnately 5-foliolate ; leaflets 

 scarcely | inch long, sessile, narrowly oval or obovate, acute, entire, 

 thin, veined beneath, pale glaucous green, usually quite glabrous, 

 sometimes densely pubescent on both sides, the terminal one the 

 largest. Flowers imperfectly dioecious, on short pedicels jointed to 



* The (BaXo-dfiov Ikvtipov of Theophrastus. 



f Opobalsamum, oTro^dXo-afjiov in Dioscorides, the juice flowing from the 

 Balsam-tree. 



