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THE BALM OR BALSAM OF GILEAD OF THE ANCIENTS. 
major, and a variety of Messrs. Henderson’s, with very dark flowers, K. versicolor, 
nitida or grandiflora miniata, a very sweet-scented one, K. jasmanoides, a small early 
blooming white one, and K. odoratissima, a comparatively worthless flower, but 
admired by some for its fragrance. 
THE BALM OB BALSAM OF GILEAD OF THE ANCIENTS. 
The Balm or Balsam of Gilead, so celebrated in past ages, and spoken so highly 
of by Strabo, Pliny, Diodorus Siculus, and other ancient writers, is a vegetable 
gummy substance, which, when first gathered from the tree, is turbid and white, 
with a strong pungent smell, and a bitter, acrid, astringent taste. After being kept 
for a time, it becomes more thin, limpid, and transparent, assuming a greenish 
colour, and afterwards a golden yellow, being then about the consistence of honey, 
and possessing a fragrant, resinous, and balsamic odour ; in this state it is very 
tenacious, and will admit of being drawn out into long threads. It is then called 
Opohalsam, but in this pure state is rarely or never to be purchased. 
Its medicinal properties were so highly extolled by the ancient physicians that it 
