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ON THE BALSAM TREES PRODUCING MYRRH AND BDELLIUM. 
Z. Baclei or Bacle’s Jujube is supposed to be the plant, as it grows abundantly in. Senegal. 
It is, however, a far more tender species. The Z. Lotus also grows in the greatest plenty 
in the kingdoms of Koarta, Ludamar, and the northern parts of Barbary. 
The ripe fruit are collected by spreading a cloth upon the ground and beating the 
branches with a stick. They are then well dried, and afterwards pounded gently in a 
wooden mortar, until the farinaceous matter is separated from the stone. The dried pulp 
is then mixed with a little water, and made into cakes, which are dried in the sun, and 
then resemble both in colour and flavour the very best gingerbread. 
The stones are afterwards put into a vessel of water, and shaken about so as to separate 
the farina which may still adhere to them ; this gives a nice flavour to the water, and 
when thickened with millet, it makes a nice gruel, called “ Fondi .” This gruel forms the 
common breakfast of nearly all the middle and lower classes in many parts of Ludamar, 
during February and March. 
The Lotophagi, or Lotos-eaters, as the Greeks named them, were a people who lived 
on the sea-coast on the north of Africa, including the Gulphs of “ Syrtes,” the Island of 
Meninx (now Jerba), and the coast beyond it as far as the lake and river Tritonis to the 
Mechlies. 
Various opinions, however, have been advanced as to the extent of the locality occupied 
by these people. Scylax includes all the tribes between the two “ Syrtes,” under the 
name of Lotophagi : Ptolemy limits them to the neighbourhood of the river “ Cinyps 
Herodotus confines them to the west of the river “ Cinyps Strabo places them in the 
neighbourhood of “ Jerba,” although he calls the adjoining Syrtes that of the “ Lotophagi 
Pliny assigns them, in addition to the island, the environs of the Syrtes also. All the 
people, however, inhabiting the countries bordering on the desert appear to have been 
Lotos-eaters ; and the limits mentioned by the various writers, as above, arose no doubt 
from the want of their not having sufficient acquaintance with the inhabitants of these 
countries. 
Zizyphus Lotus is nearly hardy, requiring nothing more than the shelter of a common 
greenhouse, or even a conservative wall, but to secure a crop of fruit it will be advisable to 
give a little warmth during the growing season, and let the wood be well ripened. 
Propagation is effected by cuttings planted in sand, and placed under a glass in heat. 
ON THE BALSAM TREES PRODUCING MYRRH AND BDELLIUM. 
There are few vegetable products that require a more careful investigation than the 
plants yielding the celebrated gum-resins of commerce, familiar to us under the name of 
Myrrh, and the Bdellium or Googul (Moogl of the Arabians — (3be\\t,ov and pabcXKOv of 
Dioscorides, according to the account in Dr. Royle’s “ Researches.”) We are, therefore, 
much indebted to Dr. Stocks for the account here given of the Googul or Googil of 
Scinde. In the MS., how 7 ever, this gentleman had called the plant by the name 
Balsamodendron Boxburghii , from an idea that it was identical with the B. Boxburghii 
of Arnott, (the Amyris commiphora of Roxburgh), a native of north-eastern Bengal. A 
comparison of specimens of both, in my Herbarium, has satisfied Dr. Wallich and myself 
that the two species are very distinct. It is true it bears the same name among the 
Bengalese as the Scinde plant ; but that name appears to be given to different plants 
yielding a somewhat analogous product ; as, for example, the Googul or Googil of the 
Coromandel coast, which Dr. Stocks observes, is the Boswellia Glabra. But it is 
extremely improbable that a plant of the North-eastern frontier of Bengal should be 
identical with one of Scinde, where the vegetation bears a striking resemblance to that of 
Syria or Arabia. Dr. Roxburgh, too, observes that though his plant, when broken 
or bruised, diffuses a grateful fragrance like that of the finest Myrrh, yet that the “juice 
never congeals, but is carried off by evaporation, leaving little or nothing behind ; and 
