Foreign Vegetables. 215 
able when it is thick, old, and adulterated with 
Turpentine, or other Mixtures, which the Smell 
and Tafte eafily difcover. 
The Plant, or Shrub, which yields this Balfam, 
is called Balfamum Syriacum , Rut a folio , C. B. P. 
400. Balfamum verum , J. B. 1. 298. Balfamum 
Lent if ci folio , sEgyptiacum , Bellon . Obferv. Balfa- 
mum , P. 48. 
Authors are not agreed concerning its native 
Soil. Theophraftus , Biofcorides , P/i«jy, and others, 
have fuppofed that it grew in Judcea : And they 
tell us that it was cultivated in the Valley of 
Jericho in two Gardens, the one confiding of about 
twenty Acres of Land, the other not fo much. 
Hence it was called Balfamum Judaicum. Pliny af- 
lerts that it grew no where elfe but in Judcea ; 
and relates that the Jews , in the laft War between 
them and the Romans , deftroyed all the Trees they 
could, and that the Romans , on the other Hand, 
fought to defend and get Polfeffion of them. 
Theophraftus alferts that it grows no where fpon- 
taneoufly ; but Biofcorides fays it grows not only 
in Judcea , but likewile in Egypt. According to 
Strabo it grows in Arabia , in the maritime Parts 
of the Country of the Sabceans. In fine, it ap- 
pears that neither Judcea nor Egypt have been its 
native Soil ; for at this Time no Balfam-Trees are 
found in Judcea , nor were any to be found in the 
Time of Bellonius , having, as he fuppofes, been 
either entirely neglected, or plucked up, during 
the Invafion of the Turks. He faw them no where 
but in the Sultan’s Gardens in one of the Suburbs 
of Memphis , now called Cairo , where they were 
cultivated with great Care *, and, according to his 
Account, had been tranfplanted thither, at a vafi 
Expence, from Arabia foelix. Moreover, the fame 
Author affirms that formerly, and like wife in his 
P 4 Time, 
