ON THE BALSAM TREES PRODUCING MYRRH AND BDELLIUM. 
283 
all that he could ever procure was a very minute portion of gummy matter, which 
certainly resembles Myrrh both in smell and appearance, but has no tendency to be 
even tenacious or elastic.” The excellent Dr. Hoyle, however, rather inclines to the 
opinion, that this tree, when old, does yield a gum-resin, closely resembling Myrrh, 
because that which he examined, “ was said to come from the hills, at the foot of which 
the tree is found.” Be that as it may, it is very certain that the Mukul or Googul 
Balsam Tree of the Persian Gulf here described by Dr. Stocks, is a very distinct species ; 
and the gum-resin it yields, is much more likely to be that of the ancient writers on the 
subject; for it is assuredly the genuine Googul of the “Bazaars of Hydrabad and 
Kurrachee,” and that which is exported from Bombay. I have ventured to give it the 
name of Balsamodendron Mukul, rather than of “ Googul,” which latter appellation is 
clearly given to three different plants. My only doubt has been, whether I shall not 
refer it to B. Myrrha of Nees (represented in Royle’s valuable “ Manual of Materia 
Medica,” page 339, fig. 56), from Gison on the borders of Arabia Felix, from which 
shrub Ehrenberg and Hemprich collected “ some very fine Myrrh.” The flowers, indeed, 
were not known, but the figure is a very good representation of the fruiting state of the 
plant so far as can be judged without the aid of analysis. Dr. Hoyle justly remarks “ That 
the whole of the species of the genus require to be carefully examined from good and 
authentic specimens, accompanied by their respective products, before the several doubts 
can be resolved.” Dr. Stocks is happily placed for carrying out such investigations, and 
he has fulfilled Dr. Royle’s injunctions most accurately in the present instance, both in 
descriptive matter and figure. 
I may here add that the Heudelotia Africana , Guil. et Perot. “ Flora Senegambise ” 
(. Balsamodendron , Arnott), is a species having great affinity to our B. Stocksii, but it 
differs essentially in the very long tubular calyx, and yields “ African Bdellium,” or that 
imported into France from Guinea and Senegal, according to Perrottet. This would 
appear to be the “ Niotout ” described by Adanson (“ Travels in Senegal ”) as yielding a 
kind of Bdellium. Of all this group of useful gum-resins ( Balsamodendra ), it may be 
said that this African species and the Scinde species are the only ones satisfactorily 
ascertained to the present day. 
The gum-resin Googul has had its synonymes traced out by Sprengel, in “ Hist. Rei 
Herbarise,” i. 272, followed by Ainslie in “ Materia Indica,” i. 29, and Royle in “ Illustr. 
Bot.” Himalayan Mountains, p. 176. It is the Mukul of the Persians and Arabians, and 
the Bdellium of Dioscorides, and Genesis, (?) ii. 12 ; Numbers, xi. 7. There has always 
been, however, some degree of uncertainty about the tree from which it is obtained. 
It is unnecessary here to dwell on the idea of Kasmpfer, “ Amoenitates,” p. 668, that 
it is produced by the Borassus flabelliformis ; or of Matthiolus, that it comes from the 
Chamcerops Jiumilis. Moreover, it has no connection with the Googul of the Coromandel 
Coast, which is the Koonder Gum from the Boswellia glabra (Ainslie, i. 136). Virey 
(“ Hist, des Medicamens,” p. 291,) first suggested that Bdellium came from an Amyris, 
the ( Niotoutt of Adanson, Voy. 162; Heudelotia Africana, “Flora Senegambiae,” 
i. 150; Balsamodendron Africanum, Arnott, in “ Annal. Nat. Hist.” iii. 87.) It is 
probable, indeed, that African Bdellium is yielded by this shrub, which is closely allied to 
the Googul Tree of Sylhet and Assam, which Dr. Roxburgh had growing in the Calcutta 
Garden, and described in the “ Flora Indica,” ii. 244, under the name of Amyris Commi- 
phora, with the Sanscrit synonym of Googula ; but he was not aware of its yielding a 
bazaar gum. In the “ Hortus Bengalensis ” this same plant appears as the Amyris 
Agallocha, which was probably the name finally adopted by Roxburgh, from some suspicion 
of the distinctness of Jacquin’s plant ( Commiphora Madagascariensis, Jacq., “ Hort. 
Schoenbr.,” ii. pp. 66, et 249), the supposed identity of which had suggested the specific 
name in the “Flora Indica.” 
The alterations, however, had not been entered in the MS. of the “ Flora Indica,” 
when death deprived India of its most methodical and accurate Botanist. Royle grew this 
plant in the Saharunpore Garden, and was informed that it produced the Googul gum- 
resin, but recommends (Himalayan Bot. and more recently in his work on “Materia 
