SACRED BOTANY — BALM TREE, MYRRH, BDELLIUM. 
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unequal leaflets. The flowers are not known, but the drupes are ovate acuminate, smooth, and 
somewhat larger than a pea. The myrrh exudes from cracks in the bark of the trunk, and is 
artificially obtained by bruising- the latter with stones, which is principally done during the hot months. 
It is generally hi pieces of irregular form and size, and is imported commonly of a reddish brown 
colour, the taste bitter and aromatic, the smell peculiar and balsamic. It is at first soft, oily, and 
yellowish white in colour ; but, by exposure to the ah - , it hardens, and the colour changes. Its 
action is stomachic, excitant, stimulant and expectorant ; and it forms an ingredient in many tooth 
powders. Very extravagant statements have been made as to its medicinal properties. 
" Stacte" occurs once in the authorized version (Exod. xxx, 34), as a translation of natqf, and is 
mentioned as an ingredient of a compound perfume, to be made i; after the art of the apothecary." 
Many conjectures have been offered as to what is here intended; but the most probable suggestions 
are those which consider it as the purest kind of myrrh, called stacte by the Greeks ; or a species of 
Storax gum, which the Greeks also called stacte, which is described as transparent like a tear, and 
resembling myrrh. But there appear no means of identifying nataf with either of these substances. 
In two passages, the Hebrew lot is in the authorized version, erroneously translated '■myrrh" 
(Gen. xxxvii, 25; xl, 11), Gum ladanum appears to be intended. 
Bdellium is the translation of bedolach, which occurs in Gen. ii, 12, and Xumb. xi, 7 ; in the former 
as a product of the land of Havilah, and in the latter as being of the colour of the miraculously 
supplied manna on which the Israelites were fed. Different opinions have been held, in respect to 
its identification. By some it is translated pearl ; others regard it as a precious stone ; but the more 
probable interpretation seems to be that which refers it to the aromatic gum resin bdellium, which 
view is supported by Josephus's account of the manna, by the Vulgate, and by several ancient writers. 
The term bdellium is, however, applied to two gum-resinous substances. One is called African bdellium- 
and is the production of Balsamodendron africanum, formerly called Heudclotia africana ; this was first 
found on the west of Africa in Senegal, whence, as well 
as from Guinea, African bdellium is imported ; the 
same species occurs in Abyssinia. The other, called 
Indian bdellium, or false myrrh, is probably the 
bdellium of the Bible, and is the produce of a tree 
growing in India, Persia, and Arabia. This bdellium 
has been supposed to be the produce of Amyris Com- 
miphora, now called Balsamodendron Roxburghii ; 
but a paper recently published by Dr. J. E. Stocks, 
in Hooker's Journal of Botany, seems to prove that 
it is procured from a species which has been named 
B. Mukul ; and which Dr. Stocks found to grow 
throughout Scinde, and other parts of India, extend- 
ing to Arabia, according to the observation of his 
friend, Dr. Carter, probably common up the Persian 
Gulf, and serving to connect the Indian and Syrian 
floras. This tree yields the gum resin, googul — 
the mukul of the Persians and Arabians, which 
is believed to be the bdellium of the Bible. It is 
undoubtedly the genuine yooijnl of the bazaars of 
Hydrabad and Kurrachee, and that which is ex- 
ported from Bombay. Its general characteristic is 
bitterness ; the best kind is clear, pure, viscous, 
sweet-smelling, yellow, and bitterish. When thrown 
on the fire, it emits an odour like the laurel [P Lauras], 
and readily dissolves in water. When old, its bitterness increases, and the older it is the darker it 
becomes. It is esteemed cordial and stimulant, and is extensively employed bj the Hindoos as incense 
in their temples, though its smell is by no means agreeable. 
The Balsamodendron Mukul is a small tree, of four to six feet in height, or more generally a 
stunted bush, with thick knotty crooked branches, covered with ash-coloured bark, which peels off in 
Ihikes, leaving exposed the under bark, which separates in large rolls: the snbteriiiinal branches are 
short and spiniform, bearing leaves which are either simple obovate, and toothed towards the apex, 
or trifoliate, with the lateral leaflets sometimes minute and entire, but generally serrated, and half the 
size of the terminal leaflets. The leaves and flowers are collected at the end of short stunted buds, 
Bahamodcndron ATukttl. 
