42 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



grows in the country of the Cohuixcas and in other 

 places of the kingdom. It is a lofty, grofs, thick tree, 

 iimilar in leaves and fruit to the common fig. From 

 its branches, which extend horizontally, fpring certain 

 filaments which taking their direction towards the earth, 

 increafe and grow till they reach it ; ftrike root and 

 form fo many new trunks, that from one fingle fig, a 

 whole wood may be generated. The fruit of this tree 

 is altogether ufelefs, but its timber is good (j-). 



With refpedl laftly to plants which yield profitable re- 

 fins, gums, oils, or juices, the country of Anahuac is 

 moft fingularly fertile, as Acofta in his Natural Hiftory 

 acknowledges. 



The Huitziloxitl, from which a balfam diftils, is a tree 

 of moderate height. Its leaves are fomething fimilar to 

 thofe of the almond tree, but larger ; its wood is reddifli 

 and odorous, and its bark grey, but covered with a red- 

 difli pellicle. Its flowers, which are pale, fpring from 

 the extremity of the branches. Its feed is fmall, white, 

 and crooked; and likewife comes from the extremity of 

 a thin fliell about a finger long. In whatever part an 

 incifion is made, efpecially after rains, that excellent re- 

 fin diftils which is fo much valued in Europe, and nowife 

 inferior to the celebrated balfam of Meccha (/.) Our 

 balfam is of a reddifli black, or a yellowifli white, as 



from 



(s) A. Perez de Ribas makes mention of this fmgular fig, in his Hif- 

 tory of the Millions, from Cinaloa ; and Bomare in his Didtionary, under the 

 names of Figuier des Indes, Grande Figuier, & Figuier admirable. The hifto- 

 rians of Eaft India defcribe another tree, fimilar to this, which is found there. 



(t) The firft baifam brought from Mexico to Rome was fold at one hundred 

 ducats, by the ounce, as Monardes attefts in his Hiftory of the medicinal Simples 

 of America, and was declared by the Apoftolic Sec, matter fit for chrifm, al- 

 though it is different from that of Meccha, as Acofta and other writers on Ame*. 

 rica obferve. 



