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THE BALM OR BALSAM OF GILEAD OF THE ANCIENTS. 
Judiacum and Balm of Gilead, and became an important article of the commerce of 
that country. This transplantation, according to Josephus, took place 1700 years 
before the Christian era, when the Queen of Sheba, Saba, or Azab, visited King 
Solomon ; amongst other valuable presents, he relates that she gave him living plants 
of what was afterwards called the Balm of Gilead. 
The name of the plant, as given by botanists, is Balsamodendron Gileadensis ; 
the Amyris Gileadensis of Linn, and Vahl., Amyris Opobalsamum of Forsk, and 
Syriacum de Mecca of some other authors. Bruce, in his description of it, says that 
it grows five or six feet high, branching much, with the aspect of a standard cherry- 
tree, red branches and white flowers. Its true characters, however, are as follows : — 
Balsamodendron Gileadensis. — An evergreen tree-like shrub, growing four- 
teen feet or more high. Branches numerous, crooked, and spreading. Wood soft, 
whitish, light, and covered with a smooth, reddish ash-coloured bark. Leaves thinly 
scattered, palmately trifoliate, sometimes with pairs of opposite pinnse, and an odd 
one ; leaflets nearly ovate, blunt, entire, and of a bright green. Flowers scattered 
upon the branches, small, white, unisexual. Pedicels axillary, one-flowered, and 
usually growing in threes, shorter than the petioles. Calyx persistent, divided into 
four small, acuminated teeth. Petals four, oblong, acute, concave, spreading, 
induplicately valvate in aestivation. Stamens eight, inserted under the annular disk, 
with elevated warts between them. Filaments tapering, erect, and terminated by 
oblong anthers. Ovary one, ovate, superior, two-celled. Style thick, the length of 
the filaments, and terminated by a quadrangular stigma. Drupe roundish-ovate, 
with an acute termination, opening by four valves, two-celled, or, by abortion, one- 
celled. Cells one-seeded. Seed a smooth nut. 
The finest balsam is obtained from these trees by wounding the branches during 
the months of July, August, and September, whilst the sap is in most vigorous 
circulation ; the gum that oozes is received into small earthen bottles, and every 
day's produce is poured into a larger vessel, which is kept closely corked. This is 
called Opobalsam, and can be obtained only by presents ; the supply scarcely exceeds 
what is required in the seraglios, and for the use of the great officers ; so that it is 
never sent out of the country. In this pure state, it will dissolve readily in water ; 
whilst the coarser kind, and that which is adulterated with Cypress turpentine and 
oil of sesamum, remains undissolved on the surface. 
The next kind is obtained by gently boiling the ripe fruit in water, a,nd skimming 
off the balsamic matter as it rises to the surface. This is called Carpo-balsam. 
The third, or most inferior kind, is obtained from the same materials which 
produced the Carpo-balsam, with an addition of young branches, and by increasing 
the fire, a supply of thick dark-coloured balsam rises, and is collected ; this is called 
Xylo-balsam. These two last kinds are what chiefly reach Europe. 
The wood is burnt as a perfume, in most parts of Arabia. 
In cultivation, the plant requires the heat of a moderate stove, should be 
planted in a mixture of peat, loam, and sand, and may be easily increased by 
cuttings planted in pots of sand, and placed under a hand-glass in heat. 
