AMY 
flipper, a young man fent in to his mfljefty a copy of Greek 
verles. The king being no fcholar, gave tliem to his 
chancellor to read, who was fo pleafed with them, that he 
recommended to his majefty to take the young man to Pa¬ 
lis, and to make him tutor to his children. Charles IX. 
to whom Amyot had been preceptor, on the poll of great 
almoner of France being vacant, gave him that honoura¬ 
ble piece of eccleliafti'cal preferment; and gave him, fome 
time afterwards, the bifliopric of Auxerre, as well as a 
rich abbey ; with all which Amyot appeared to befo little 
contented that he alked for another rich abbey to append 
to them. Charles was much furprifed, and reminded 
Amyot, that he had always allured him that he had 
bounded his defires to a few hundred pounds a-year. 
“ True, fire,” replied the prelate, mat's I’appctit vient en 
viangcant ; “the appetite encreafes by eating!” Henry 
III. who had alfo been his pupil, gave him the Order of 
tiie Holy Gliofi. Amyot died in 1593, at the age of feven- 
ty-nine. Not long before his death, he was much prelfed 
to write the hiltory of his country. “ I love my love- 
reigns too well,” laid he, “ to write their lives.” A111- 
yot’s tranllation of Plutarch will enlure him immortality ; 
it is the beft tranllation ever made of that entertaining and 
inftruftive writer. The French language owes him the 
obligation of having refined and polilhed it. The edition 
of Amyol’s Plutarch, printed by Vafcofan, in 13 vols. 
121UO. is the edition preferred by the connoiHeiirs in books 
•for the elegance of its typography. 
AMY'R ALDISM,yi a name given by fome writers to 
the doctrine of univeffal grace, as explained and aflerted 
by Amyraldis, or Mofes Amyrault, and others his fol¬ 
lowers, among the reformed in France, towards the middle 
of the 17th century. 
AMYRAU'LT (Mofes), an eminent French Proteftant 
divine, born at Bourguiel in Touraine in 1396. He ft ti¬ 
died at Saumur, where he was chofen profelTor of theology 5 
and his learned works gained him the elteem of Catholics 
as well as Proteftants, particularly of cardinal Richelieu, 
who conlulted him on a plan of re-uniting their churches, 
which however, as may well be fuppofed, came to nothing. 
He publifhed a piece in which lie attempted to explain the 
myftery of predeftination and grace, which occaltoned a 
controvert)- between him and fome other divines. He 
alfo wrote, An Apology for the Protcftants; a Paraphrafe 
on the New Teftament; and feveral other books. This 
eminent divine died in 1664. 
AM'YRIS, f. [from « intenfive, and (j.vgov, ointment 
or balm.] In botany, a genus of the oCtandria monogynia 
clafs, in the natural of terebintaceas. The generic cha¬ 
racters are—Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, four-tooth¬ 
ed, acute, ereCt, fmall, permanent. Corolla: of four, 
oblong, concave, fpreading petals. Stamina: filaments 
awl-lhaped, erect. Antherae oblong, ereCt, the length of 
the corolla. PiftiJlum: germ fuperior,ovate ; ftyle thick- 
ifii, the length of the ftamens; ltigmas four-cornered. 
Pericarpium-i a drupaceous roundifti berry. Seed: a 
round thining nut .—EJfenlial CkaraEler. Calyx, four¬ 
toothed. Petal, four, oblong. Stigma, four-cornered. 
Berry, drupaceous. 
Species, x. Amyris elemifera, or gum-elemi tree: leaves 
ternate, and pinnate with five lobes, downy, underneath. 
Marcgraaff deferibes it as a lofty tree with a fmall trunk, 
covered with a fmooth grey bark ; growing almoft in the 
manner of a beech-tree. The flowers come out very 
clofe together at the axils of the leaves. The fruit is the 
tize and figure of an olive, and the colour of a pomegra¬ 
nate, having an odoriferous pulp within it. Gummi elemi 
5 s a refin from this tree, brought over in oblong roundiflv 
cakes, generally wrapped up in flag-leaves. The beft 
fort is foftilh, fomewhat transparent, of a pale whitifti- 
yellow colour, inclining a little to greenifh. This refin is 
only tifed as an ingredient in a digeftive ointment called 
wiguenlum elemi, which is made from one pound of gum 
el.emi, ten ounces of turpentine, two pounds of prepared 
Voh, L-No. 3z, 
A M- Y -501 
mutton fuel, and two ounces of oil of olives. Native of 
Carolina and Brazil. 
2. Amyris fylvatica: leaves ternate, crenate, acute. 
A flirub eretft, leafy, branching but little, from two to 
fifteen feet high* according to the toil and fitnation. The 
whole abounds in turpentine of a ftrong difagreeable fmell. 
Gum elemi has erroneonfly been fuppofed to be yielded 
by this plant. Found plentifully about Carthagena, in 
woods near the fea. Flowers in.Auguft. 
3. Amyris maritima, or fmall flirubby fweet wood: 
leaves ternate, crenulate, obtufe. A dwarf fnrub, branch¬ 
ing, with a juice like that of the former, but plcafanter, 
and fmelling like rue. It is always found about the Ha- 
vannah, on rocks by the iea-fide ; flowering from Jujie to 
September. 
4. Amyris Gileadenfis, or balfam of Gilead tree : leaves 
ternate, quite entire ; peduncles one-flowered, lateral. 
The balfam of Gilead tree is a fiirub with purplifh 
branches, ftraited a little, having protuberant buds loaded 
with balfamic refin. 
5. Amyris opobalfamum, or balfam of Mecca tree: 
leaves pinnate, leaflets feflile. The true opobalfamum, 
according to Profper Alpinus, is at firft turbid and white, 
of a very ftrong pungent fmell, like that of turpentine; 
but much Tweeter and more fragrant, like mint, varying 
according to its goodnefs, and of a bitter, acrid, aftringe.nt, 
tafte : on being kept it becomes thin, limpid, light, of a 
greenifli hue, and then of a gold colour ; after which, it 
grows thick, like turpentine, and lofes much of its fra¬ 
grance. A curious balfam is fometimes met with, fmell¬ 
ing' like a mixture of rofemary and fage flowers, exceed¬ 
ingly fragrant, limpid, and thin : dropped on water, it 
fpreads itfelf all over the furface, imparting to the liquor 
a confiderable (hare of its tafte and fmell : the groft’er 
part, that remains on the top of the water, is fo tenaceous, 
as to be eatily taken up at once with the point of a needle, 
which is reckoned a characferiftic of the true balfam. 
This feems to be the fame with that which Bergius fays 
he has had from England, under the name of balfam of 
Gilead. Gerlach (as quoted by Bergius) relates, that 
the trees which produce the opobalfamum, or balfam of 
Mecca, grow near Bederluinin, a village beeween Mecca 
and Medina, in a fandy rocky foil, confined to a fmall 
traft, about a mile in length. In the beginning of April, 
the trees drop their juice from gaflies which are made in 
the fmallcr branches, into velfels fet under them to receive 
it. A gafli does not yield above three or four drops in a 
day, weighing about a drachm ; nor will even the beft 
trees yield more upon the whole in a feafon than from ten 
to fifteen drachms. The inhabitants ufe it as a fudorific, 
particularly in the rheumatifm: but it is adulterated upon 
the fpot. Lady Mary Wortley Montague informs 11s, that 
the balm of Mecca, of the beft quality, is not eafv to be 
got, even at Conftantinople : that, applying fome of it to 
her face, it became fwelled and red during three days, 
but that her complexion was much mended by the opera¬ 
tion : and that the ladies all ufe it at Conftantinople, and 
have the lovelieft bloom in the world, its great fcarcity 
has prevented its.coming into ufe among us : nor are its 
virtues* probably, fuperior to thole of fome of the refinous 
juices more common in the (hops; all thefe fubftances 
being in their general qualities alike, though differing in 
the degree of their gratefulnefs, pungency, and warmth. 
An inferior fort of balfam is prepared from boiling the 
young twigs and leaves gently in a large quantity of wa¬ 
ter ; the balfamic matter riles to the furface, which is 
Ikimmed oft'. After they have thus procured all they can,^ 
it is laid that they increale the fire, and a large quantity of 
thicker balfam like turpentine rifes, which is preferved 
by itfelf, and is that principally which we have in Europe., 
The other only can be obtained by prefents ; and, that 
which diftils naturally from the trees, 1'carcely l’upplying 
the feraglio and great officers, there is none of it font out 
of the country, 
6 M Haffelquift 
