Am.  Jour.  Pharm, 
June,  1920. 
Elemi. 
419 
into  a  cylinder  and  covered  with  the  leaf  of  the  royal  palm.  As 
the  volatile  oil  evaporates  a  solid  candle  or  torch  is  formed.  For 
incense  also  the  oleoresin  is  allowed  to  solidify.  But  the  tree  is  not 
confined  to  Porto  Rico,  as  it  occurs  in  several  of  the  lesser  Antilles 
Islands  and  in  Costa  Rica,  where  it  is  also  known  by  the  same  name, 
Tabanuco. 
In  Dominica  it  is  known  as  the  Gommier  or  Gommier  rouge, 
and  is  believed  to  be  the  source  of  the  elemi  of  that  island.  In 
St.  Lucia  it  is  called  the  Gommier  a  Canot.  But  the  word  Gommier 
may  almost  be  taken  as  synonymous  with  elemi,  since  the  various 
trees  called  by  that  name  yield  an  oleoresin  having  most  of  the 
properties  of  elemi,  though  differing  somewhat  in  odor  from  the 
Manila  elemi  of  the  Philippines,  which  was  formerly  official  in  va- 
rious Pharmacopoeias.  Thus  the  Gommier  of  the  Windward 
Islands  is  Bur  sera  gummifera  Linn.,  known  in  Jamaica  as  the  birch- 
tree,  and  in  St.  Vincent  as  the  turpentine  tree.  A  second  Gommier 
in  St.  Lucia  is  the  Prptium  Guianense  March,  which  is  distinguished 
as  the  Gommier  a  Vencens.  It  yields  also  the  encens  of  Cayenne  and 
the  Tacamahaca  of  Venezuela.  All  these  trees  belong  to  the  same 
natural  order  Burseraceoe,  to  which  also  the  frankincense  tree  of 
Somaliland  belongs.  There  has  been  much  confusion  regarding  the 
botanical  names  of  the  trees  yielding  the  different  kind  of  elemi, 
or  oleoresins  that  have  been  imported  into  Europe  from  time  to 
time  under  these  names.  Thus  Manila  elemi  was  for  many  years 
attributed  to  Canarium  commune,  and  it  is  only  since  the  American 
occupation  of  the  Philippine  Islands  that  it  has  been  shown  to  be  the 
product  of  Canarium  Luzonicum  Miq.,  and  partly  of  Canarium 
villosum,  Benth.  and  Hook.  f.  It  may  be  regarded  as  probable, 
however,  that  African  elemi  from  Angola  is  yielded  by  Canarium 
edule,  Hook  f.,  and  that  of  Central  Africa,  Uganda  and  Southern 
Nigeria  by  Canarium  Schweinfurthii,  Engl. ;  Mexican  elemi  by  Amyris 
Plumieri;  British  Guiana  by  Protium  Guianense,  March,  and  P. 
heptaphyllum,  March;  Brazilian  elemi  by  Protium  Icicariba,  March; 
and  Mauritius  elemi  by  Canarium  Mauritianum,  Blum.  It  is  there- 
fore evident  that  various  oleoresins  more  or  less  resembling  Manila 
elemi  occur  in  tropical  countries  in  various  parts  of  the  globe,  and 
are  possibly  capable  of  commercial  use.  At  present  few  of  them, 
except  the  Manila  elimi  and  the  Gommier  a  Vencens  of  the  West 
Indies,  are  collected  in  a  clean  condition,  and  most  of  them  are  not 
even  purified  by  melting  and  straining. 
