94 
In the Kew Reports for 1878 (p. 41) and 1880 (pp. 50, 51) vefer- 
ence is made to specimens of the plants yielding Bêsabol brought to this 
cou ex ts, Mr. Wykeham Perry. They produced foliage at "Kew and 
were ified as Hemprichia erythrea, Ehr. Hemprichia is now 
Mia. to be identical with Balsamodendron, and the species producing 
Bissa ból may therefore be Fou do e B. erythreum, Parker (l.c.) 
gives it as B. Kafal. This is paih seily founded upon the remark 
of Bentley and Trimen (Medicinal Plants, sub tab. 60) that Hemprichia 
erythrea is probably to be referred to A? == Kafal of Forskål. In 
this Engler (De Cand. Monogr. iv. p. 21) a 
‘Trimen (/.c.) also suggests the further identity of sepe 4 
onu Ai in this Engler (L.c., p. 19) does not concu 
r. E. M. Holmes made the following statement din. Journ., 
3rd i Ser, XXV, 1894-95, p. 501) :— 
opopanax of cates is poete from a gum-resin which has a db» 
different origin, being derived from es a sal Kataf, Engl. It is 
the “ Bissabol" of Pharmacographia (2nd Ed., p. 145), and "the per- 
fumed bdellium of Dymock, Mat. Med. India ji 158-9. In appearance 
it resembles Pares and myrrh also, but it has a slightly pleasant and 
quite distinctive odour 
It is pointed out in ne Kew Report fov 1878 (p. 41) that :— Fors- 
kal relates that the gum of. Balsamodendron Kataf is used by Arab 
women for washing their hair, which is precisely the purpose for which 
that next to be mentioned [Gum Hotai] is employed in Somali-land.” 
Horar. 
According to Vaughan (Pharm. Journ. xii, p. 227) this “is the 
pearance not unlike that which produces the myrrh, and attains the 
height of abovt six Hes 
Flüekiger and Hanbury (Pharmacogr. vy ed., p. 146) quote Miles 
for the iii iibri that re heath hai is only use n the Somali d 1Y ss 
men to whiten their shields (by means "s an Kalio made w e 
drug), by women to cleanse their hair.” They further suggest shut 
^ probably hodthai and habaghadi is one and the same thing." In the 
Kew Report for 1880, p. 51, it is pra out that *the gums them- 
selves are certainly distinct, and . . the plants yielding 
them also. 
The origin of Hotai seemed clearly established by the specimens sent 
to Kew by Sir Lambert P which Sir Joseph Hooker described 
as ee Playfairi o these is attached in the Kew 
Herbarium a note by Hanbury :-—“ It constitutes a spiny shrub of 6 
feet high pati a in great abundance all along the Somali coast on the 
sandy plain lying between the mountains and the sea. Its Arabie name 
otai is also applied to the gum which it appears to produce in nbund- 
ance and of which Captain Playfair has sent us specimens, ‘This gum 
is an opaque, Modena brittle substance, occurring in large tears ; it is 
nearly inodorous t has bitterish acrid taste ; with water it readily 
forms a frothing effetti The gum is collected by the $ 
it as Soap, and according to Mr, Vaughan especially for cleansing the 
g 
z 
E 
5 
C 
ea 
eo 
$ 
Hanbury (Pharm. Journ., xii., pp. 227, 228) ge vi Hotai "ken 
Viae epe mens) as occurring in “irregular piec 
