MYROXYLON PERUIFERUM. 
167 
warm situations near the River Maranon ; and flowering in the months 
of August, September, and October. It is a very beautiful tree ; the 
trunk rises to a considerable height, straight and smooth; the 
branches extend almost horizontally, and, like the trunk, are covered 
with a coarse,^ compact, heavy bark, externally of a grey colour, 
internally of a pale yellow, and abounding with a very fragrant resin, 
which also pervades every part of the tree ; the leaves are alternate, 
and abruptly pinnate ; the leaflets are nearly opposite, (and vary in 
number from two to four or five pairs) petiolate, ovate, lanceolate, 
with the apex somewhat obtuse and emarginate, entire, verv smooth, 
shining, and veined ; the midrib on the under surface pubescent ; the 
common petiole is round and pubescent ; the flowers are scattered, 
and arise on axillary erect racemes, longer than the leaves; the 
peduncles are slender, roundish, and pubescent, each supported by 
a very small, erect, ovate, concave bractea ; the pedicles are erect ; 
the calyx is bell-shaped, dark green, and divided into five small, 
nearly equal segments, but with one of them so far separated as to 
be found under the germen ; the corolla consists of five white petals, 
four of which are narrow, equal, lanceolate, and larger than the 
calyx, and the fifth reflexed, broad, and double the size of the others ; 
the ten stamens are inclining, and inserted into the calyx, bearing 
elongated, sharp pointed, sulcated anthers; the germen is oblong, 
pedicillated, inclining; the style is short, subulate, crooked, and 
crowned with a simple stigma ; the pericarp is straw coloured, club- 
shaped, somewhat curved, and pendulous, globular near the top, and 
terminated by the curved style ; in the cell (formed at the curved part) 
it contains a single seed, which is crescent-shaped, and projects from 
the cell. 
This tree was first discovered by Mutis, about the year 1781, who 
sent a specimen of it, both in fruit and flower, to the younger Lin- 
naeus. By the natives inhabiting the countries where this tree grows 
it is called Quinguino, and the bark they use as a perfume. We 
are told by Ruiz, that the balsam ** is procured by incision at the 
beginning of the spring, when the showers are gentle, frequent 
and short ; it is collected into bottles, where it keeps liquid for some 
years, in which state it is called While Liquid Balsam. But when 
the Indians deposit the liquid in mats or calabashes, which is com- 
monly done in Carthagena, and in the mountains of Tolu, after some 
time it condenses and hardens into resin, and is then denominated 
Dry White Balsam, or Balsam of Tolu, by which name it is known 
in the druggists' shops." M. Valraont de Bomare says, in his Dic- 
tionary of Natural History, that " if an extract be made from the 
bark, by boiling it in water, it remains liquid, and of a blackish 
