M Y R R II. 
except that the claw of the larger petal is not reprefen ted 
longer than the calyx. The legume however appears to 
be of a much thorter proportion than in M. Peruiterum, 
and abrupt, not tapering, at the bafe; its Italic is (lender, 
longer than the calyx, whofe rim only feems to be deci¬ 
duous. Seed folitary, oblong, curved. Nothing is faid 
refpebling any ball'amic quality or exudation in this 
fpecies. 
3. Myroxylum frutefcens, or foetid balftim-tree : leaflets 
elliptical, abrupt, emarginate; (talk ot the legume fhorter 
than the calyx. Gathered by Jacquin, in dry bufhy places, 
at the foot of a mountain near Carthagena, South America. 
Stem fhrubby, eight or ten feet high, not much branched. 
Leaves deciduous, alternately pinnate, with an odd leaflet; 
the leaflets all uniform, elliptical, ftrongly emarginate, 
fmooth, about the flze and fhape of the halt. Chillers lax, 
nearly terminal, erebt; flowers pale rofe-coloured, with¬ 
out fcent. Legume about three inches long, as in the 
laft, with fcarcely ever more than one feed, which, like 
the legume itfelf, difcharges a balfam of a ftrong and 
foetid odour. The fruit remains long on the tree, after 
the leaves are fallen. Lamarck confounds this fpecies 
with the fil’d. 
MYRRH,/ [jou jfpu, Gr. of y.vpu, to run or trickle.] 
A kind of gum-relin, ifluing by incifion, and fometimes 
fpontaneoufly, from the trunk and larger branches of a 
tree growing in Arabia, Egypt, and efpecially in Abyflinia. 
Authors are not agreed about the tree which produces 
this gum : it is true they all make it fmall and thorny ; 
but they difagree about the form of its leaves. In feveral 
refpects it refembles the Acacia vera, which is the Mimofa 
nilotica; and this agrees with the defcription of the tree 
given by Diofcorides. The trees producing myrrh grow 
on the eafiern coafl of Arabia Felix, and in that part of 
Abyflinia which is fituated near the Red Sea. It is im¬ 
ported to us in chefls, each of which contains from one 
to two hundred weight. The Abyflinian myrrh comes 
to us through the Eafl Indies; and that produced in 
Arabia is brought by the way of Turkey. 
The ancients, and particularly Diofcorides, fpoke of 
myrrh in fuch a manner as to make us fuppofe, either 
that they have defcribed a drug which they had never 
feen ; or that the drug feen and defcribed by them is ab- 
folutely unknown to modern naturalifts and phyficians. 
The Arabs, however, who form the link of the chain be¬ 
tween the Greek phyficians and ours, in whofe country 
the myrrh was produced, and whofe language gave it its 
name, have left us undeniable evidence, that wdiat we 
know by the name of myrrh is in nothing different from 
the myrrh of the ancients, growing in the fame countries 
from which it was brought formerly to Greece; that is, 
from the eafl; coaft of Arabia Felix, bordering on the 
Indian Ocean, and that low land in Abyflinia on the 
fouth-eaft of the Red Sea, included nearly betwxen the 
12th and 13th degree of north latitude, and limited on 
the weft by a meridian pafling through the ifland Maflowa, 
and on the eaft by another pafling through Cape Guardafu, 
without the Straits of Babelmandel. This country the 
Greeks knew by the name of the Troglodytia; not to be 
confounded with another nation of Troglodytes, very 
different in all refpebls, living in the forefts between 
Abyflinia and Nubia. The myrrh of the Troglodytes 
was always, as now, preferred to that of Arabia. That 
part of Abyflinia being half overrun and fettled, half 
wafted and abandoned, by a barbarous nation from the 
fouthward, very little correfpondence or commerce has 
been fmce carried on between the Arabians and that 
coaft; unlefs by fome defperate adventures of Mahometan 
merchants, made under accidental circumftances, which 
have fometimes fucceeded, and very often likewife have 
mifcarried. The moft frequent way by which this Trog¬ 
lodyte myrrh is exported, is from Maffowa, a fmall 
Abyflinian ifland, on the coaft of the Red Sea. Yet the 
quantity of Abyflinian myrrh is fo very fmall, in com¬ 
panion of that of Arabia, lent to Grand Cairo, that we 
Vol. XVI. No. 1126, 
450 
may fafely attribute to this only the reafon why our 
myrrh is not fo good in quality as the myrrh of the 
ancients, which was Abyflinian. Though thofe bar¬ 
barians make ufe of the gum, leaves, and bark, of this 
tree, in difeafes to which they are fubjebt; yet, as very 
little is wanted for fuch purpofes, and the tree is the com¬ 
mon timber of the country, this does not hinder them 
from cutting it down every day, to burn for the common 
ufes of life; and, as they never plant, or replace the 
trees deftroyed, it is probable that in fome years the true 
Troglodyte myrrh will not exift; and the erroneous de- 
fcriptions of the Greek phyficians will lead pofterity, as 
they have done us now, into various conjebtures, all ot 
them falfe, on the queftion, what that myrrh of the an¬ 
cients was. 
Though the myrrh of the Troglodytes was fuperior to 
any Arabian, yet the Greeks perceived that it was not 
all of equal goodnels. Pliny and Theophraftus make 
this difference to arife from the trees being partly wild, 
partly cultivated. But this is an imaginary reafon : all 
the trees were wild. It was the age of the tree and its 
health, the manner of making the cut or wound in it, 
the time of gathering the myrrh, and the circumftances 
of the climate when it was gathered, that conftantly de¬ 
termined, and does yet determine, the quality of the drug. 
In order to have myrrh of the firft or moft perfebl fort, 
the favages clioole a young vigorous tree, whofe bark is 
without mofs, or any parafite plant; and, above the firft 
large branches, give the tree a deep wound with an axe. 
The myrrh which flows the firft year through this wound 
is myrrh of the firft growth, and never in very great 
quantity. This operation is performed fome time after 
the rains have ceafed ; that is, from April to June; and 
the myrrh is produced in July and Augull. The lap, 
once accuftomed to iffue through this gafh, continues to 
do fo fpontaneoufly, at the return of every feafon : but 
the tropical rains, which are very violent, and continue 
fix months, wafh fo much dirt and lodge fo much water 
in the cut, that in the fecond year the tree has begun to 
rot and turn foul in that part, and the myrrh is of a 
fecond quality, and fells in Cairo about one-third cheaper 
than the firft. The myrrh alfo produced from gafhes 
near the roots, and in the trunks of old trees, is of the 
fecond growth and quality, and fometimes worle. This 
however is the good myrrh of the Italian (hops every-where 
but in Venice. It is of a blackifli-red foul colour, folid 
and heavy, lofing little of its weight by being long kept 3 
and.it is not eafily diftinguiihed from that of Arabia Felix. 
The third and worlt kind is gathered from old wounds 
or gafhes formerly made in old trees ; or myrrh that, 
pafling unnoticed, has hung upon the tree ungathered a 
whole year; black and earth-like in colour, and heavy, 
with little fmell and bitternefs. This apparently is the 
caucalis of the ancients. 
Pliny fpeaks of ftafl'c, as if it was frefh or liquid myrrh ; 
and Diofcorides fays fomething like this alfo. However, 
it is not credible that the ancients, either Greeks or 
Latins, placed at fuch a dillance, could everlee the myrrh 
in that Hate. The natives of its country fay, that it 
hardens on the tree inilantly, on being expofed to air; 
and I, (fays Mr. Bruce,) who was feveral months within 
four days’ journey of the place where it grew, and had 
the favages quite at my devotion to go and come from 
thence, could never fee the neweft myrrh fofter than the 
(folid) ftate it now is in; though I think it diflblved 
more perfectly in water than when it had been kept. 
Diofcorides too mentions a kind of myrrh, which lie 
fays was green, and of the confidence of palte. But, as 
Serapion and the Arabs fay that liable was a preparation 
of myrrh diflblved in water, it is probable, that this un¬ 
known green kind of Diofcorides was, like the liable, a 
compofition of myrrh and fome other ingredient, not a 
fpecies of Abyflinian myrrh, which he could never have 
feen, either foft or green. 
It may be remarked, that, when we buy frefh or new 
5 Z myrrh. 
