Foreign Vegetables. 257 
fticks to the Teeth *. The Drops fometimes con- 
creting two and two together, fo as to refemble 
the Tedicles of Men, or the Breads of Women, 
according to their different Magnitudes, have 
given rife to the Didin&ion thereof into Male and 
Female Frankincenfe: And fometimes four or five 
are joined together in Lumps, as large as an 
Hafel-Nut, or larger, and adhere to a Piece of 
Bark, belonging to the Tree from whence the Refin 
is obtained. The fmall Grains which are rubbed 
off by the Collifion of the Lumps with one an- 
other is what the Greeks termed Manna of Frankin- 
cenfe : The bed Frankincenfe is whitifh, pellucid, 
pure, filming, and dry. It was no Stranger to 
the remoted Antiquity, having been ufed in all 
Ages, and almod all Nations, in religious Wor- 
fiiip. 
The Place where it is found is not abfolutely 
determined ; for fome afiert that it is to be met 
with only in a certain Part of Arabia , and others 
tell us that it is alfo produced in Ethiopia Of 
what Species the Tree is from whence it is got, 
* Hence it may be inferred that Frankincenfe is not a 
Refin, as moft Writers have hitherto fuppofed, but a Gum Re- 
lin. This has been obferved by an ingenious Author in a 
Treatife lately printed, intitled, A new Method for the Improve- 
ment of the ManufaBure of Drugs in a Treatife on the Elixir 
ProprietatiSy P. 3. “ Geoff roy. fays he, when he compares OH- 
“ banum to Majlichy unknowingly, difcovers that it was not a 
“ Refin, but, what it truly is, an oily Gum, or Gum Relin. His 
“ Words are, nec accenfa difficulty ut Mafiche. Dentibus ftatim 
** comminuitur : verum comminuta non cogitur denuo ut Majlicbet 
“ neque fcut ea in ore likere volutari potef, cum dentibus adha - 
“ refcat. The Saliva mixing with it begins to diflolve it, which 
“ hinders the Re-union of its Parts. Were it a Refin likeMaf- 
** tich, the Parts firft divided by chewing, would re-unite by the 
“ Heat of the Mouth, upon continuing of that Chewing.” 
*f- We have it imported to us from the Eajl Indies ; whence 
it feems more probable that it is got in Arabia , and perhaps 
in fome other Parts of Afia, 
S 
we 
