DR. G. BIRDWOOD ON THE GENUS BOSWELLIA. 141 
Arabia. . . . though brought from Sheba, in Arabia, at a very early date. . . . yet we have 
no reason to believe the frankincense-tree grew in Arabia; at least it cannot be traced 
there now : and, as in the case of cassia and other spices, the Arabian merchants were 
not likely to be communicative in the secrets of their monopoly [!]. To the present day 
the best frankincense used in Turkey is imported through Arabia, from the Eastern 
Archipelago. It is also largely imported into Europe from Bombay, for use in the 
Romish and Greek ceremonials, but of inferior quality." 
1t is, I think, probable that other odoriferous gum-resins, oleo-resins, and balsams may 
have been confused with frankincense by ancient writers, as by modern ones. Niebuhr 
expressly confuses benjamin with frankincense, as does also Herbert before him; and 
this confusion, I believe, underlies the whole error of India being the source of the oliba- 
num of commerce. Milburn and others confuse it with the mastic, which is irregularly 
imported in very large quantities into Bombay. It has been popularly confused with 
balm :— 
* Let India boast her plants, nor envy we 
The weeping amber, or the balmy tree", 
[(Added Dec. 3.) So Mrs. Manning, in her ‘Ancient India,’ vol. ii. p. 348, says ** balm and 
myrrh may or may not have come from India."] And the predisposing cause of all this 
confusion has been the unfounded belief that Dioscorides says that frankincense comes 
from India. It is remarkable that the benzoin of Java is said not to be mentioned by 
any ancient writer; and yet it is inconceivable that such a fragrant balsam should not 
have been known to them, and I cannot help suspecting that benzoin at least was largely 
used as frankincense in ancient times. It is used throughout Japan, China, Burmah, 
Siam, India, and Arabia, at this day, with frankincense. Books say that frankincense 
is still the sweet perfume “of our catholic churches ;" but Stackhouse says that it is 
not now used, benjamin being substituted for it, an assertion which every inquiry of my 
own contradicts. In the Malayan language, the same word is used for frankincense and 
benzoin?. Dioscorides, also, as has been shown, distinguishes an Indian frankincense ; 
and so, when Colebrooke's discovery came, it was accepted as settling the controversy. 
But I question whether some variety of the African frankincense was not the Indian 
frankincense of Dioscorides. 
I have given a few extracts above, showing the change in the trade-routes between 
Europe and the East; and these changes also help to explain how it has come to be 
believed that India produces the olibanum of commerce. Errors from such changes are 
very common in connexion with commercial articles : calumba, East-Indian senna, and 
balsam of Peru are illustrative instances. The similarity between the Hebrew, Arabic, 
and Greek names for frankincense and Mount Lebanon probably led to the error of 
Ausonius, Florus, Pomet, and others, that Mount Lebanon produced frankincense. 
Celsius quotes an Orphie verse and passages from Euripides and Athenæus which also 
assert or imply that frankincense was a product of Syria. And the error seems to 
PEN DU. IU ad lacrymatas cortice myrrhas.”—Ovid. “ The Bee and the Orange-Tree," Fairy Tales, D'Aulnoy, 
trans. Planché : Lond. 1855. 
* Marsden's Dict. of the Malayan Language; Crawford's Grammar and Dict. of the Malay Language. 
