THE FRANKINCENSE OF THE ANCIENTS. 
89 
Notwithstanding the great use which has been made of this article in both 
religious w^orship and medicine, of the trees which produce it very little is knowm. 
It has generally been considered a production of Arabia Felix, and trees have been 
said to grow near the city of Sabe ; hence it has been called by some writers Gum. 
Sabseum. It is certain that until this last half-century, all the supplies were solely 
drawn from Africa, and it was not unfrequently called Gum Thuris, on account of its 
being brought by merchants from Thur or Thor, a port in the north bay of the Red 
Sea, near Mount Sinai. By the name Thuris it was readily distinguished by pur- 
chasers from Gum Acacia, or Gum Arabic, a product of Acacia vera, nilotica, and 
other species, which were chiefly exported from Suez. 
The Greeks called this gum Ai^avos, Libanus, a word of the same import as 
Lahonah, its Hebrew, and Luhan, its Arabic appellation. The Arabs also called it 
Cundur, which name appears not to have been unknown to the Greeks, hence, some 
of their writers have used the term Kovhpco, when speaking of this article. The 
Hindu medical writers notice in their works a fragrant resinous substance, under 
the name of Cujiduru ; the Mahomedan writers, also, of India, mention the same, 
and both state it to be the product of a tree called Salad, or Salai, common in the 
mountain forests in all the central districts. 
The gum-resin collected in India is less pure than that received from Africa, and 
also differs from it in several other particulars ; this may arise from the mode of 
collecting it not being the same, or from the situations in which the trees are grown, 
but more probably the African kind is the product of a different tree. 
Neither Theophrastus, nor Pliny, or any other of the old Greek writers, agree in 
their descriptions of the trees producing this gum. The former, who lived 350 
years before the Christian era, says, the tree is about five cubits high, full of 
branches, with leaves resembling those of the pear-tree, and a smooth bark, like 
that of the pear-tree. Other writers, however, about the same age, affirm it to be 
like the Mastick tree {Pistacia lentiscus), having reddish-coloured leaves, and 
branches and fruit like the Mastick. Others, again, contend that both leaves and 
I bark resemble those of the Bay tree [Laurus nohilis). It is easily seen that all 
these authors had different plants in view, and each considered his the true incense- 
I bearing one. 
The opinion of Linnaeus, which was adopted by most medical writers in his day, 
was, that it was the production of Juniperus lycia, a fragrant resinous plant, growing 
naturally in the south of Europe, with a habit very similar to the Savin {Juniperus 
Sabina). On being wounded, like all other pinaceous plants, it exudes a transparent 
resinous gum, possessing a pleasant aromatic smell, but differs very materially, both 
in properties and appearance, from the true .Gum Olibanum. The French phy- 
, sicians and chemists especially have turned their attention to this subject, and they 
have had ample opportunities of fully investigating it, as the shrub grows abundantly 
I. in the southern parts of their country. The unanimous conclusion has been, that 
VOL. XV. NO. CLXXII. 
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