152 
FLORA OF ADEN. 
Alexander the Great is said to have recognized the value of the pre- 
cious gum. 
2 . Roswellia Roxb. 
Trees usually with papery bark. Leaves alternate, crowded at the 
ends of the branches, deciduous, imparipinnate ; leaflets opposite, 
usually serrate. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, small, white, in axillary racemes or panicles. 
Calyx small, 5-toothed, persistent. Petals 5, narrowed at the base, 
imbricate. Disk annular, crenate. Stamens 10, alternately long and 
short, inserted at the base of the disk. Ovary sessile, 3-celled ; ovules 
2 in each cell, pendulous; style short ; stigma 3-lobed. 
Drupe trigonous, 3-valved, valves separating from the pyrenes ; 
pyrenes bony, 1-seeded, finally separating from the trigonous axis. Seeds 
compressed, pendulous; cotyledons contortuplicate, multifid; radicle 
superior. 
Species about 10. 
Distribution : — Tropical Africa, Arabia, India. 
1* Boswellia Carterii Birdwood in Trans. Linn. Soc. XXVII, 14i3; 
Engler in Engl. & Prantl Pflanzenfam. Ill, 4, p. 246. 
English name: — Frankincense-tree, Olibanum tree. 
Arabic name : — Maghrayt d'sheehaz (Carter) . 
Description : — A small tree ; brancblets terminal, pubescent or 
tomentose. Leaves 7-10-jugate, sometimes 5-jugate; petiole pubes- 
cent ; leaflets ovate-oblong, undulate or crenate^undulate, broadly rotun- 
date or truncate at the base, all pubescent or sometimes glabrous on the 
upper side and velvety and paler on the lower. 
Racemes simple, fasciculate, shorter than the leaves. Corolla patent ; 
petals white or wax-coloured ; disc rose-coloured ; stamens inserted into 
Pona. Del vero Balsamo di *gli antichi. Venice, 1623. 
Campi. Parere sopra il Balsamo. Lucca, 1639. 
Campi. Riposta ad objettioni. Lucca, 1640. 
Campi. In dilucidazione e confirmazione. Pisa, 1641. 
Castelli, P. Opobalsamum examinatum. Venice, 1640. 
Castelli, P. Opobalsamum triumphans. Venice, 1640. 
Baldus. Opobalsami orientalis propugnationes. Rome, 1640. 
Vesling. Opobalsami veteribus cogniti vindicise. Padua, 1644. 
Slevogt. Balsamum verum vulgo Opobalsamum efc De Opobalsamo. Jena, 1705 — 
1717. 
Vater. Balsami de Mecca nafcura et usus. Wittenberg, 1720. 
Winniken, Besihreibung des wahren Opobalsambaumes. Kopenhagen, 1745. 
Stackhouse, J. Extracts from Bruce’s Travels in Abyssinia and other modern autho- 
rities respecting the Balsam and Myrrh Trees. Bath, 1615. 
