95 
of bien tiers opacity, cracked in all directions, and readily breaking up 
in gular pieces; on the exterior the la are yellowish- 
tiov | or somewhat liver-coloured, and occasionally encrusted on one 
side with a reddish sand . . . D — or nearly white, 
sometimes darker towards the centre. N — inodorous,. 
but in taste is slightly bitter vum acrid to the throa 
agitated with water in a phia a affords an siaiaibas ‘whieh 
Engler (De Cand. Monogr. iv., p11), has ee B. Playfairit 
with B. Myrrha, but this dentes ion cannot be sustained 
Playfair’ s specimens ae the label * Somali country. ‘The plant 
yielding the gum *Hotai'" This Engler quotes as E '« Somali, in 
campis Hotai," a transla m» which might, perhaps, mislead. It is, 
however, to be noted that the myrrh plant grows on the mountains 
parallel to the Somali coast, whiie Playfair's plant g grew on the sandy 
plain between the mountains and the sea. 
Engler (Natürl. Pflanzenfam. iii. 4, p. 256) quotes the statement of 
0 
latter collected myrrh in Somali-land. © But he adds the pe, 
not given by Trimen that it wasa plant “ d resembling B. Myrr 
which has been described as a distinct species, B. Play yfairii. This i is, 
pbi an error; as shown above, it is different from both. 
CasvArL INGREDIENTS. 
African myrrh when sorted at Bombay is found to contain a os 
of other substances more or less similar in character. About these 
little or nothing is known. They are discussed by Parker (Phat. 
Journ., 3rd ser. x., p. 82, and xi., pp. 41-43). 
Inpian BDELLIUM, 
Two kinds are described by Dymock (Pharmacogr. Ind. i. pp. 31 0 
311 
* The produce of Balsamodendron Mukul somewhat resembles the 
African drug in general appearance, the pieces often having portions 
ssf bark attached to them, but the colour is —— often greenish ; 
the odour and taste are somewhat different, and a certain proportion of 
it is in distinct vermiform pieces as thick as ae little finger. Its 
pane i is ee less than that of African bdellium. 
e of B. Roxburghii occurs in. irregular lumps covered 
more or less wi ith dirt and hair, to which portions of papery bark as 
taste bitter; with water it forms a greyish-white emulsion. 
It seems not impossible that these are the same thing, and pr rudupid 
by the same species, B Mukul. Stocks erroneously identi&ed B. Mukul 
with B. Roxburghii, which is an eastern and not a western species in 
India (see Hooker, Kew Journ. Bot., i., p. 259). 
