ON MYllOXYLON TOLUIFERUM. 
'62 
old tree, nearly 2 feet in diameter. There was a sprinkling of pods upon it, hut it was 
not by any means loaded. The pods are so loosely attached to the branches and so brittle 
in themselves, that nearly all of them were shaken from the tree and many broken to 
pieces by the shock of the fall. I found them to be approaching maturity, the seeds 
being fully developed, but, I am afraid, not ripe enough to grow. I had another smaller 
and more vigorous tree cut; the foliage of this was much larger than that of the older 
tree, and also a little different in form, but it bore no fruit. The specimens I send will 
sufficiently show the difference in the foliage of the two trees, and it is also sufficiently 
explained by the greater luxuriance of the younger. 
As I have already said, it is impossible to reach the foliage of any of the trees unless 
by felling them; but I examined the leaflets of many trees from specimens picked up 
from the ground, but saw nothing to induce me to believe that the balsam is produced 
here by more than one species. The young trees have always larger foliage than the old 
ones; but the difference was constantly the same as it was in the individuals I had felled. 
The trees never make a very dense head of branches and foliage; but in the old ones, 
which have been much bled, it is very thin : many of the small twigs are dead, and the 
living ones are covered with lichens. 
When a tree is about to be bled, two sloping notches are made in its trunk quite through 
the bark, and meeting in a sharp angle at their lower ends, leaving thus a point of bark 
between them untouched. The bark and wood is hollowed out a little immediately 
under this point, and the calabash cup is inserted under it. The process is repeated ail 
over the trunk at close intervals, up as high as a man can reach; I have seen as many as 
twenty cups on a tree. The piece of bark and the cups I have sent, will show the process 
better than I can describe it. When the lower part of the trunk of a tree is too full of 
scars and wounds for any fresh cuts to be made, a rude scaffold is sometimes made round 
the tree, and a new series of notches made higher up. ■ 
From time to time, as may be necessary, the balsam gatherer goes round the trees 
with a pair of flask-shaped bags made of raw hide, slung over the back of a donkey. Into 
these bags the contents of the calabash cups are successively poured, and the cups are re¬ 
inserted under the point of bark and left to be again filled. The balsam is sent down to 
the ports on the river in these hide bags, where it is transferred to the tins. 
I could not learn which were the best months for the flowing of the balsam,—one 
person saying that it was in July, another in March, and so on, scarcely two agreeing; but 
the bleeding goes on during at least eight months of the year, from July to March or 
April. When the balsam is flowing well, I was told that “ one moon ” sufficed to fill 
the cups. 
Respecting the time of the flowering of the tree, individuals differed as widely as they 
did about the best time for the production of the balsam. I think I was told that it 
flowered in every month of the year, each person asked giving a different month; and 
several asserted that it did not flower at all. 
I could not get anyone to recognize the nam q u Balsamo de coneolito.” I tried 
individuals with it at Cartagena, Barranquilla, Mompox, Las Mercedes, Plato, and the 
Montana, but none of them knew what I meant. The balsam is certainly not known by 
that name at any of these places, but is always called Balsamo de Tolu* 
I remained a couple of days in the Montana, and returned to Plato. We travelled 
part of the way with a man going down to the port with a quantity of balsam: he had 
three donkeys loaded with it, each carrying four arrobas, or 100 lbs. weight. The quan¬ 
tities of the drug I saw on its way for exportation at Las Mercedes, Plato, and on the 
road from the Montana, must have amounted to at least 1500 lbs., wfliich proves that the 
tree must be very plentifully scattered through the forest. 
I returned to Mompox in a canoe, and arrived there on the 20th ult. On the 4th of the 
present month I left Mompox by the steamer up the river, and lauded here on the 7th. 
This place is called Barranca Vermeija, and is situated on the riverside, about two leagues 
further up than the place where the village of Bojorques formerly stood, for it is not now 
in existence, the river having earned all the houses away. This being the nearest point 
to Bojorques I could land at, I came here hoping to find Stnilax officinalis H.B.K., hut 
* “ The balsam is 
known by the name 
calabash used for 
23rd, 1802. 
not distinguished in this region [Carthagena] by the name of Tolu, but if 
of Balsamo de coneolito,—coneolito being the native name of the small 
collecting it .”—Letter from the late Sutton Haves to JD. Manhunt. Dnrii 
-Letter from the late Sutton Ha. 
yes to JD. Hanbury, 
is 
;in all 
djpril 
