92 
The following passage in Royle’s Materia Medica (pp. 386-7) seems to 
have been overlooked by later writers. 
* Mr. Johnston, also in his travels through Adel to Abyssinia (i. p. 
247), in treating * of the tree that yields this useful drug, pea says: 
‘there are in agen country of Adel two varieties, one alow, thorny, 
uiulting "ed edge, is that which has been eerste _ by Ehrenberg. 
is produces the finest kind of myrrh in our sh This may be 
either B. Myrrha or one of the forms of R. Opstlilessiim. *'The other 
is a more leafy tree, if I may use the expression, and its appcarance 
o 
the same largely serrated, dark green leaves, growing in run d 
four or five, springing by several leaf-stalks from a eommon centr 
'The flowers are small, of a light green colour, hanging in pairs beneath 
the leaves, ovem in size and shape Dew e very much the flow r 
goo e fruit is a kind of berry, tha: when 
ripe easily ews off the dry shell | in two pieces, and the two aem it 
contains escape. The outer bark is thin, tran sonne and easily 
detached ; the verum. thick, woody. When wounded, à yellow turbid 
flows freely upon the stones gre em ae underneath. Artificially it is 
obtained by bruises made with ston d 
“ This plant, judging from the ‘dat cih deposited by Mr. Johnston 
in the British Museum, corresponds exactly with one, also in the same 
collection, obtained by Mr. Salt in Abyssinia, Balsamodendron Kua of 
Mr Brown's MSS., and of which Mr. Salt says, he obtained from it 
a gum much T MOM the myrrh." 
Iam indebted to Mr. George Murray, iod keeper of the Botanical 
Department of the British Museum, for tracings both of Mr. Salt’s 
E and of Mr. Johnston's specimen, Roth cence 9 me referable 
o B. abyssinicum, which Oliver refers as " variety to B. africanum. 
Royle states D č. n 387, footnote) :—“ Mr. Johnston immediately 
recognised it [t.e. B. africanum] as one cf di trees yielding gum resin. 
The "Jeaflets are ike those of B. Kua, Br.’ It appears therefore that 
of the two plants met with by Mr. miaii the first is the source 
of “ true myrrh,” the second of African bdelliu 
Opaque BDELLIUM. 
Parker (Pharmaceutical Journal, 3rd. ser. x., p. 82) gives the following 
description of this drug :—‘‘ ma be at once recognised by its opaque, 
yellow-ochre coloured, conchoidal fracture; it resists the uail. It is 
very hard and difficult to fracture (difference from * gum hotai "), 
almost odourless and its taste bitter without acidity, occurs frequently 
in large rea ae tears with a coarsely granular surface.” 
ike can bdellium, it finds its way to India from Berbera 
According to Dymock (Pharmaceutical Journal, 3rd ser., vi., , P- 661} 
this is found in ee bales of African m myrrh when sorted at Bombay. 
It “is called meena harma, and is used for the extraction of Guinea 
worm; it is of a Miyellowiibiv bite colour, resembling ammoniacum, with 
hardiy any odour, and a bitter taste. 
Parker however (7. Cy Pe 82), remarks that “ Dymock’s specimen . . . 
of Opaque Bdellium, is a very brittle opaque gum, which agrees 
pe spon with the ace hotai of Vaughan. Dymock’s identification 
fore to be incorrect. Perhaps Parker's statement was 
