ON  SOME  PANAMA  DRUGS. 
237 
a  coating  for  the  bottoms  of  canoes  and  small  vessels,  being  boiled 
with  quick  lime  and  api^lied  tvarm,  when  it  soon  becomes  a  hard 
and  horny  mass.  This  substance  is  a  thick  liquid  of  the  con- 
sistence of  turpentine,  a  brownish  color,  turbid  but  without  any 
sign  of  crystallization,  in  thin  layers  whitish  and  merely  trans- 
lucent ;  its  odor  is  slight,  reminding  of  rancid  butter ;  taste 
slight.  On  the  application  of  heat  it  fuses  to  a  thin  brown,  per- 
fectly transparent  liquid,  but  loses  its  transparency  again  on 
cooling. 
It  is  soluble  in  ether  and  oil  of  turpentine  ;  with  alcohol  it  forms 
a  turbid  solution,  which  is  rendered  milk-white  by  water,  separa- 
ting at  the  same  time  an  oily  looking  liquid  at  the  surface.  So- 
lution of  ammonia  and  potassa  readily  yield  with  it  almost 
transparent  solutions  which,  on  agitation,  foam  like  suds.  Boiled 
with  milk  of  lime  it  becomes  hard  on  cooling.  Held  in  the 
flame  it  burns  with  a  bright  sooty  flame. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  this  is  obtained  from  Brusera  acu- 
minata, Willd.,  which  by  modern  writers  is  united  with  B.  gum- 
mif era,  J iicc[.  DeCandolle*  says  :  "  Fundit  oleam  quoddam  es- 
sentiale  concretum  flavum."  Another  species  of  the  same  natu- 
ral order,  Hedwigia  balsamifera,  Swartz,  yields,  besides  a  finely 
flavored  resin,  a  thick  liquid  of  the  consistence  of  copaiva, 
called  in  France  baume  a  cochon. 
A  substance  resembling  gutta  percha.  This  came  in  a  flattened 
circular  cake,  about  5J  inches  in  diameter  and  2J  inches  thick, 
externally  of  a  dirty  brown  yellowish  color,  internally  white 
with  streaks  of  dirt,  showing  that  the  mass  while  liquid  has  either 
been  collected  in  ditches  in  the  ground,  or  that  while  in  suitable 
vessels  it  had  been  exposed  to  dust  and  dirt,  and  when  nearly 
hard  the  mass  was  formed  into  a  cake,  the  dirty  surface  being 
placed  inside.  Near  the  edges,  where  the  mass  had  been  longest 
exposed  to  the  atmosphere,  the  fracture  is  smooth  and  shows 
veins  of  a  dull  brown-yellowish  color  which,  cut  with  a  knife,  ex- 
hibit a  waxy  lustre.  Between  and  outside  these  veins  the  frac- 
ture is  finely  uneven  and  almost  mealy.  The  mass  is  without 
odor  and  taste ;  held  between  the  teeth  it  gradually  becomes 
pliable  without  adhering  to  the  teeth.    Carefully  heated  it 
*  Prodromus,  ii,  p.  78. 
