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BALM (BASTARD). 
the preparation of tea and of a medicinal water. 
It is easily propagated by dividing the root; and 
it needs no other culture than being kept clean 
from weeds, and being deprived of its decayed 
stalks in autumn. 
BALM (BASTARD),—hbotanically Meditiis. A 
small genus of hardy, herbaceous, sweet-smelling 
plants, of the labiate tribe. It is very nearly al- 
lied to the balm genus, and derives its botanical 
name from the same pleasant characteristic fea- 
ture. The melissa-leaved species, or common 
bastard balm, A/elittis melissophyllum, grows wild 
in the woods of England, has a height of about a 
foot, and produces a flesh-coloured flower in May 
and June. The great flowered species, Melittts 
| grandiflora, also grows wild in the woods of Eng- 
land, and produces a white flower in May. A 
plant of either of these species, when beginning 
to be dry, is highly fragrant. 
BALM (MOLDAVIAN),—botanically Draco- 
cephalum Moldavicum. An ornamental annual 
plant, of the dragon’s-head genus. It is a native 
of Moldavia, and was introduced to Great Britain 
about the end of the 16th century. Its stem 
grows to the height of 18 or 24 inches; its leaves 
are oblong and serrated; and its flowers appear 
in whorls round the stem at every joint, and 
bloom in July and August. The normal plant 
_ has blue flowers; and a widely diffused and quite 
permanent variety has white flowers. Moldavian 
balm has a strong balsamic fragrance. Most of 
_ the old-introduced species of dragon’s-head ap- 
| pear to have been at one time called Moldavian 
| balm. 
BALM OF GILEAD,—botanically Dracoce- 
phalum canariense. A tender, tuberous-rooted, 
ornamental plant, of the dragon’s-head genus. 
It is a native of the Canary Islands, and was in- 
troduced to Great Britain about the end of the 
17th century. Its popular name seems to allude 
to a strong resinous fragrance which its leaves 
emit on being rubbed. Several square stems rise 
from each root to the height of about 3 feet, and 
are ligneous in their lower parts; the leaves are 
compound, oblong, pointed, serrated, three-lobed 
or five-lobed, and situated in opposites at the 
joints of the stems; and the flowers are of a pale 
blue or pale purple colour, and are produced in 
short thick spikes on the top of the stems, Though 
classed as a greenhouse plant, it can live through 
many a winter in a sheltered border in most parts 
of England. It is propagated from either seeds 
or cuttings. See BALsSAMODENDRON. 
BALM OF GILEAD FIR. See Fir. 
BALSAM,—botanically Balsamina. A genus of 
very beautiful, tender, annual plants, forming 
the type of the natural order Balsaminese. This 
order, however, includes only the additional spe- 
cles ¢mpatiens, and was formerly treated as one 
genus, under the name of dmpatiens. All the 
species, with only one exception, are annuals; they 
amount to upwards of thirty; they are princi- 
pally natives of tropical countries ; and they are 
————— SSS 
BALSOMODENDRON. 317 
remarkable for the brilliance, variegations, and 
singular appearance of their flowers. Their habit 
is peculiar; and their florification, their embryo, 
and their capsule, resemble those of respectively 
the fumitory, the flax-plant, and the wood-sorrel. 
Nearly twenty species of the genus balsamina are 
known to botanists; ten have been introduced 
to Great Britain; and nine of these ten have 
been introduced within the last thirty years. 
The longest and best known species, often called 
emphatically the balsam—Balsamina hortensis— 
but formerly /inpatiens balsamina—is hardier and 
taller than the other species, yet sufficiently resem- 
bles them to be an accurate type of the whole. It 
isa native of the East Indies, and was brought to 
Great Britain about the end of the 16th century. 
Its stem is succulent, branchy, and semi-pellucid, 
and rises from the height of from one foot to three 
feet; its leaves are long, spear-shaped, and ser- 
rated ; and its flowers are large, delicate, very di-. 
versified in colour, but usually white, red, or 
striped, and bear a considerable resemblance to 
those of the carnation, but are much more deli- 
cate in both tint and texture. So exceedingly 
playful is the plant, that no two plants of one sow- 
ing bloom alike,—the flowers differing in double- 
ness, in size, in profusion, and particularly in 
colour and tint. It and the coxcomb are at 
present the most fashionable tender annuals in 
cultivation ; it is annually raised in great num- 
bers in pots for placing in windows, plunging in 
borders, and, contributing to the summer and 
autumn occupancy of greenhouses ; it is easily 
raised in good soil, in the usual manner of tender 
annuals; and it has, of late years, been success- 
fully propagated from cuttings for blooming in 
winter. The cuttings are treated in the same 
manner as the pipings of pinks, and may be struck 
in a rather long succession, from midsummer to 
an advanced period in autumn. If treated with 
artistic skill, the’ flowers of their plants may be 
remarkably double, and as large as a crown-piece ; 
but if badly treated, they will either not succeed, 
or produce tiny plants, and utterly worthless 
flowers. 
BALSAM (YELLOW). See Imparrens. 
BALSAMODENDRON. A genus of oriental 
balsamic trees, of the turpentine-tree tribe. Five 
species have been described by botanists, but only 
one, the Ceylon species, has been introduced to 
the hot-houses of Great Britain. The species 
opobalsamum and Gileadense, yield opobalsamum, 
balm of Gilead, or balm of Mecca, by incision of 
their trunk, xylobalsamum by the boiling of their 
branches, and carpobalsamum by pressure of 
their fruit ; and in the periods of sacred history, 
they possessed a celebrity in Canaan, but now are 
no longer to be met with, even in gardens, in the 
vicinity of Gilead. Thespecies myrrha and katof, 
natives of Arabia, yield the well-known myrrh of 
scripture, and of commerce; and the red and 
resinous timber of the latter is a common article 
of sale in Egypt. The Ceylon species, con 
