$8 
* Coppice-wood, too, does not fetch one half of what it did twenty 
s ago; tha t of sixteen years' growth, and etr een mainly of ash 
and hazel, elite at the present time at from 5/, to 6/. per acr 
onfidently to be hoped that the rather brisker trade and better 
prices sof Tiie timber and other forest produce during the past 
three months will fully maintained, if not increased, during the year 
1897.—A. D. Webster.” 
DXLVII.—MYRRH. 
In the Kew Bulletin for 1896 (pp. 86-91) an attempt was made to 
settle ihe, botanical origin of myrrh. The publication of this paper has 
led to some fresh in nvestigations by Dr. Schweinfurth and Mr. E. M. 
Holmes, OSEE of the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society. 'These 
ap some further discussion of the subject necessary. 
Sisia rnit Myrrha was described by Nees from Ehrenberg’s 
specimens ere sent from Berlin for Dr. Trimer s examination. 
m CMledicimal Plants, sub. t. 60) *the whole available 
fateri] i is quite insufficient to enable a sound opinion to be formed as 
to whether B. Myrrha is a distinct ste 
Dr. Schweinfu wrth very kindly sent to Kew an — of the 
single fruit accompanying Ehrenberg’s aain and presumably be- 
longing to them. This indicates the validity of the species satisfacto actorily. 
It further leaves no doubt that the plant collected by sii ssc in 
re Yemen district may be referred with certainty to this specie 
. The fragmentary specimen collected by Captain Hunter at Ader 
^ labelled by him “true Myrrh,” also probably belongs to it (Kew 
Bulletin, 1896, p. 90). 
3. Mr. Holmes has cuitivated in a remarkable manner the apprecia- 
tion of distinctions of taste as a means of testing € faea of plants. 
Such an acquirement is simply invaluable in ue ological investiga- 
tion. Using this criterion he iscussed the subject | in the Phar- 
ery ste and a pecul 
likely to be absent in the plant itself. $ his bitter taste he finds ;— (i) 
in Schweinfurth’s specimens of B. Myrrha from Yemen ; (ii) in Captain 
Hunter’s specimens from Aden ; im) r^ Mr. M arme MS pan 
saver simplicifolim, h d been previously 5 Kew Reports” 
th has been 
may also have been easi ly some confusion as to its botanical identity. 
Professor Engler has in fact mixed up with Balsamodendron Myrrha, 
B. Playfairii, which certainly does not produce true myrrh, 
