532 The Liquidamber tree of the Tenasserim Provinces. [June, 



hurricane, which they might have done if the storms had succeeded 

 each other at intervals of a day or two. 



I should perhaps explain that I have not noticed in these remarks the 

 run of the Cove across the middle of the space which a day or two 

 afterwards was occupied by the hurricanes, because it is doubtful if 

 her gale at S. E. was any thing more than a stormy trade. It might 

 however have been the commencement of the "dreadful weather," 

 mentioned in the newspaper extract quoted at p. 523 as prevailing from 

 the 24th to the 31st, and as we frequently obtain in the course of time 

 additional documents I have thought it right to give this one as a 

 record. 



Miscellaneous. 



The Liquidamber tree of the Tenasserim Provinces. — By the Rev. F. 



Mason. 



" Did you ever see in this country the tree which produces the 

 Balsam of Tolu?" a gentleman once asked the writer. " I never did,'* 

 was the reply. " I have one in my compound," he continued ; but 

 unfortunately his compound was two hundred miles distant. Years 

 passed away and I found myself beneath this tree in flower, and soon 

 discovered that it was not Myrospermum toluiferum, but Liquidamber 

 altingia ; and that it produced not Balsam of Tolu, but liquid Storax. 



The tree is indigenous on the coast, and in some sections is quite 

 abundant. A considerable stream in the Province of Mergui derives 

 its name from this tree, in consequence of its growing so thick on its 

 banks. It seems to have escaped the notice of Dr. Heifer, for, if I 

 recollect right, it is not once alluded to in any of his reports, nor has 

 it ever been brought to notice by any one ; if we except a Catholic 

 Priest, a resident of Rangoon, who has introduced it in a little Bur- 

 mese medical treatise that was lithographed a few years ago by Col. 

 Burney, who took a lithographic press with him into Burmah. 



The Padre seems however to have been ignorant of Botany, for he 

 describes it as the tree which produces the Balsam of Peru (Myros- 

 permum Peruiferum) and which belongs to a different natural family. 

 The medicinal properties of their exudations too, are materially differ- 

 ent. Liquid storax, the production of this tree, is described by Lind- 

 ley merely as " A stimulating expectorant substance — influencing the 



