138 
THE MYRRH TREE. 
winter temperature should be low, not exceeding that given to common greenhouse 
plants, and artificial fertilisation must be adopted to set the fruit. Their culture 
might be carried out at very little expense and trouble ; the heat required would 
scarcely be more than is given in the peach house during the forcing season, although 
it might require to be rather more prolonged than for the Peach. A little bottom- 
heat by a tank passing through the bed would be of great advantage. Propagation 
is effected by cuttings of the half-ripened wood planted in pots of sand, and placed 
under a handglass in a moist heat ; the leaves of the cuttings should, however, be 
left without mutilation, otherwise the formation of roots will be greatly retarded. 
Seeds sown in pots, and plunged in a good hotbed, make very vigorous growing 
plants, but are many years before they produce flowers. 
THE MYRRH TREE. 
The gum-resin called Myrrh, so long known and deservedly esteemed, both as a 
perfume and in medicine, is a vegetable production issuing spontaneously, or by 
incision, from shrubs growing in Arabia and Abyssinia. Writers, however, scarcely 
agree as to the particular species from which it is obtained ; and although the article 
has been in use for more than two thousand years, botanists have unfortunately paid 
so little attention to the subject, that their testimony cannot by any means be 
considered conclusive. 
Myrrh, as procured in our shops, is received from the East Indies in the form of 
yellowish-red tears, varying in size from a hemp-seed to a large hazel nut, and are 
brittle, shining, and semi-transparent. The taste is rather disagreeable, being bitter 
and acrid, with a peculiar aroma ; and the fragrance is strong, but not particularly 
pleasant. The uses to which it has been applied are various. Administered 
internally as medicine, it is considered stimulant and tonic, and has been success- 
fully used in a variety of diseases. 
It was also formerly much valued on account of its property of resisting putre- 
faction, and therefore, at a very early date, it formed one of the ingredients, made 
use of by the ancients in embalming their dead ; and, being very costly, often formed 
an important item in the presents of the great. The Magi who came to see the 
infant Messiah, presented Myrrh, in connection with gold and frankincense, as a 
token of the highest respect and honour which they could show to one whom, they 
judged, would eventually become the greatest monarch that ever reigned upon 
the earth. 
The best kind of this gum-resin is stated by the editor of the " Flora Medica," 
v. ii., p. 213, to be brought from Troglodytitia, a province of Abyssinia, on the 
borders of the Red Sea, and the tree is said by Bruce to grow behind Azab, along 
the coasts towards the Straits of Babelmandeb. The author of the " Periplus " names 
