22 APPENDIX. 



Tin re were three productions from this tree very mud* 

 efteemed among the ancients. The firfl was called ( 'pobal- 

 famum, or, Juice of the Balfam, which was the fined kind, 

 compiled of that greenifh liquor found in the kernel of 

 the fruit : The next was Carpo-balfamum, made by the ex.- 

 preflion of the fruit when in maturity. The third was 

 Xylo- balfam um, the worft of all, it was an expreffion or de- 

 coction of the fmall new twigs of a reddiih colour. Thefe 

 twigs are ftill gathered in little faggots and fent to Venice^ 

 where I am told they are an ingredient in the Theriac, or 

 of fome fort of compound drug made in the laboratories - 

 there : But the principal quantity of balfam in all times 

 w r as produced by incifion, as it is at this day. Concerning 

 this, too, many fables have been invented and propagated. 



Tacitus fays, that this tree was fo averfe to iron that 

 it trembled upon a knife being laid near it, and fome pre- 

 tend the incifion fhould be made by ivory, glafs, or Rone. 

 There is no doubt but the more attention there is given 

 to it, and the cleaner the wound is made, the better this 

 balfam will be. It is now, as it probably ever has been, 

 cut by an ax, when the juice is in its ftrongeft circulation 

 in July, Auguft, and beginning of September. It is then 

 received into a fmall earthen bottle, and every day's produce 

 gathered and poured into a larger, which is kept clofely cork- 

 ed. The Arabs Harb, a noble family of Beni Koreifh, are the 

 proprietors of it, and of Beder, where it grows. It is aflation 

 of the Emir Hadje, or pilgrims going to Mecca, half way 

 between that city and Medina. 



Some books fpeak of a white fort brought by the cara- 

 vans from Mecca, and called Balfam of Mecca, and others 



a balfam. 



