NAT. ORDER. 
Lomentacece. 
MYROXYLON PERUIFERUM. SWEET-SMELLING BALSAM. 
Class X. Decandria. Order I. Monogynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, bell-shaped, five-toothed. Petals, five ; the 
upper one larger than the others. Germen, longer than the 
corolla. Legume, with one seed only at the extremity. 
Leaves, coriaceous, persistent, and, as well as the branches, 
glabrous. Legumes, with the wing thick on one side, veinless 
on the other. Style, deciduous. 
Spe. Char. Leaves, abruptly pinnate, alternate. Leaflets, nearly 
opposite. 
This is a very beautiful tree : the trunk rises to a considerable 
height, is straight, smooth, and covered with a compact, coarse, 
heavy bark, externally of a gray color, internally of a pale yellow, 
and abounding with a very fragrant resin, which also pervades 
every part of the tree ; the branches extend almost horizontally, 
and are covered, like the trunk, with coarse bark ; the leaves are 
alternate, and abruptly pinnate ; the leaflets are nearly opposite, 
petiolate, ovate, lanceolate, with the apex somewhat obtuse and 
emarginate, entire, very smooth, shining ; the midrib on the under 
surface, pubescent ; the common petiole is round and pubescent; 
the leaflets vary in number, from two to four or five pairs ; the 
flowers are produced on axillary, erect racemes, longer than the 
leaves ; the peduncles are slender, roundish, and pubescent, each 
accompanied by a very small, erect, ovate, concave bractea ; the 
pedicels are erect ; the calyx is bell-shaped, dark green, and divided 
into five small, nearly equal segments ; but one of them so far 
Vol. iii. —26. 
