246 
AMYRIS GILEADENSIS. 
This species of Amyris is the B££Ao-a/xov 5ev5pov of Theophratus 
and Dioscorides. It is a native of Abyssinia, and we are informed 
by Mr. Bruce,* that it grows anion-j; the myrrh trees behmd Azab, 
all along the coast to the Straits of Rabelmandel ; f and that it was 
early transplanted into the south of Arabia, and from thence into 
Judea seventeen hundred years before the birth of Christ. Accord- 
ing to Josephus, the Queen of Sheba presented this tree among 
other presents to King Soiomuu-. Although the ancients lield the 
balsani obtained from this tree in great esteem, it does not appear 
that even the Arabian physicians were well acquainted with the tree 
from which it was procured, and supposed it be the produce of 
Judea only ; imd as it was from Gilead in Judea that the merchants 
brought this balsam to Egypt, it obtained the name of lialsamum 
Judaicum, or Balm of Gilead. 
This tree rises to about fourteen feet in height; its branches are 
numerous, crooked, and spreading; the wood is soft, whitish, light, 
and covered with a smooth ash-coloured bark; the leaves are thinly 
scattered, and commonly consist of one or two pair of opposite 
pinnee with an odd one ; the pinnae are inversely ovate, entire, and of 
a bright green colour; the flowers are scattered upon the young 
branches, and are of a white colour; the calyx is permanent, and 
divided at the brim into four small pointed teeth; the petals are four, 
oblong, concave, and spreading ; the filaments are eight, tapering, 
erect, and terminated by oblong anthers; the germen is ovate, 
superior, and supports a thick style, the length of the lilameuts, and 
terminated by a quadrangular stigma; the fruit is of the drupaceous 
kind, roundish, and opens by four valves, containing a smooth nut. 
The balsam obtained from this tree passed by diiferent appella- 
tions, according to its <piality. The Opobalsamum J of the ancients 
was the green liquor found in the kernels, or probably, as Virey 
supposes, the fruit itself; an inferior sort, obtained by expression 
of the ripe fruit, was called Carpobalsamum ; and the worst sort, 
made by expression or decoction of the small twigs, Xylobalsamum. 
The genuine ba'.siun is obtained by cutting the bark with an axe, m 
the months of July, August, and September, when the juice is in the 
greatest abundance ; the juice is received into small earthen bottles. 
* Travels in Abyssinia, vol. v. app. p. 17. 
f Niebliur informs us that it grows in abundance betwixt Mecca and Medina — vide 
Travels, vol. ii. 
% Willdenow has a distinct species, under the name of Amyris Opobalsamum, but »t 
*he same time doubts if it be not a variety only. 
