36       LIQUIDAMBAR  STYRACIFLUA  AND  ITS  BALSAMIC  RESIN. 
and  permanganate  of  potassa  is  added,  no  indication  of  cinnamic 
acid  occurs.  Now  this  fact  may  not  be  true  of  the  tree  in  all 
localities.  At  the  south-west  the  bark  may  be  resinous  in  its 
nature,  and  imbued  with  a  balsamic  odor,  and  thus  approach 
more  nearly  in  character  the  oriental  species. 
I  am  informed  that  in  the  lower  counties  of  Delaware  and 
Maryland  the  farmers  are  in  the  habit  of  collecting  the  balsam 
under  the  name  of  "gum  wax  "  for  use  as  a  masticatory,  and  as 
an  application  for  corns.  By  means  of  a  hatchet  a  narrow  trans- 
verse section  of  bark  is  removed,  the  incision  being  made  at  an 
angle  of  45°,  so  as  to  form  a  sort  of  pocket  in  which  the  resin 
exuding  from  the  upper  side  of  the  wound  collects.  It  is  often 
as  colorless  as  turpentine  and  always  exceedingly  adhesive,  and 
mostly  sought  from  trees  of  two  or  two  and  a  half  feet  thick. 
Michaux  casually  observes  that  in  repeated  experiments  in 
Carolina,  trees  a  foot  in  diameter  afforded  but  half  an  ounce  of 
exudation  in  a  fortnight. 
It  may  be  proper  here  to  notice  a  letter  received  soon  after 
the  meeting  of  1864,  from  Mr.  Daniel  Roemer,  of  Cincinnati, 
who  had  resided  in  Mexico :  "  Sir  you  have  continued  to  you  the 
query, i  will  Liquidambar  s.  yield  a  product  identical  or  nearly  so 
with  storax,  &c.'  A  great  quantity  of  liquid  storax  is  produced 
in  Mejico  ;  from  what  plant  I  am  unable  to  say  ;  it  is  very  black 
upon  the  top,  and  the  dark  color  penetrates  generally  somewhat 
deeper  than  in  the  commercial  storax.  It  is  so  plentiful  that  the 
Mejican  Pharmacopoeia  directs  Emplast.  Hydrargyri  to  be  made 
with  it;  and  it  must  be  of  excellent  quality,  as  the  French  per- 
fumers (Mejicans  are  too  civilized  and  too  aristocratic  to  use  any 
other  than  French  perfumery,)  use  this  in  place  of  the  imported 
storax  whenever  they  need  it,  which  is  undoubtedly  a  great  testi- 
mony to  its  excellence."  M.  Roemer  was  unacquainted  with 
the  botanical  source  of  this  native  storax,  but  referred  to  an  emi- 
nent Pharmaceutist  of  the  city  of  Mexico,  Don  Leopoldo  Rio  de  la 
Loza,  who  he  believed  could  give  information  about  it.  Whether 
this  Mexican  storax  is  really  a  product  of  the  Liquidambar  or  of 
a  tree  of  the  genus  Myrospermum,  I  am  wholly  at  loss  to  deter- 
mine, but  deem  it  a  subject  of  interest. 
It  may  be  apposite  to  refer  to  the  bark  recently  noticed  in  the 
