Chapter IX: Part 9

Subjected to distillation, the larger part of the oil passes over at 185°-195° C.; we found this portion to be colourless, yet to display in a marked manner the violet fluorescence and also to retain the odour of the original oil. The portion remaining in the retort was mixed with about the same volume of alcohol (90 per cent.) and some drops of water added, yet not sufficient to occasion turbidity. A very small amount of the crystalline _Neroli Camphor_ then made its appearance, floating on the surface of the liquid; by re-solution in boiling alcohol it was obtained in crystals of rather indistinct form. The redistilled oil gave no camphor whatever.

Neroli Camphor was first noticed by Boullay in 1828. According to our observations it is a neutral, inodorous, tasteless substance, fusible at 55° C., and forming on cooling a crystalline mass. The crystallization should be effected by cooling the hot alcoholic solution, no good crystals being obtainable by slow evaporation or by sublimation. The produce was extremely small, about 60 grammes of oil having yielded not more than 0·1 gramme. Perhaps this scantiness of produce was due to the oil being a year and a half old, for according to Plisson[495] the camphor diminishes the longer the oil is kept.[496] We were unable to obtain any similar substance from the oils of bergamot, petit grain, or orange peel.

_Orange Flower Water_ is a considerable article of manufacture among the distillers of essential oils in the south of Europe, and is imported thence for use in pharmacy. According to Boullay[497] it is frequently acid to litmus when first made,—is better if distilled in small than in large quantities, and if made from the petals _per se_, rather than from the entire flowers. He also states that only 2 lb. of water should be drawn from 1 lb. of flowers, or 3 lb. if petals alone are placed in the still. As met with in commerce, orange flower water is colourless or of a faintly greenish yellow tinge, almost perfectly transparent, with a delicious odour and a bitter taste. Acidulated with nitric acid, it acquires a pinkish hue more or less intense, which disappears on saturation by an alkali.

=Uses=—Oil of Neroli is consumed almost exclusively in perfumery. Orange flower water is frequently used in medicine to give a pleasant odour to mixtures and lotions.

=Adulteration=—The large variation in value of oil of Neroli as shown by price-currents[498] indicates a great diversity of quality. Besides being very commonly mixed, as already stated, with the distilled oil of the leaves (_Essence de Petit Grain_)[499], it is sometimes reduced by addition of the less fragrant oil obtained from the flowers of the Portugal or Sweet Orange. In some of these adulterations we must conclude that orange flower water participate: metallic contamination of the latter is not unknown.

[495] _Journ. de Pharm._ xv. (1829) 152.

[496] Yet we extracted it from an old sample labelled “_Essence de Néroli Portugal—Méro._”

[497] _Bulletin de Pharm._, i. (1809) 337-341.

[498] Thus in the price-list of a firm at Grasse, Neroli is quoted as of _four_ qualities, the lowest or “commercial” being less than half the price of the finest.

[499] We have been informed on good authority that the Neroli commonly sold contains ⅜ of Essence of Petit Grain, and ⅛ of Essence of Bergamot, the remaining ⁴/₈ being true Neroli.

Other Products of the genus Citrus.

=Essence or Essential Oil of Petit Grain=—was originally obtained by subjecting little immature oranges to distillation (Pomet—1692); but it is now produced, and to a large extent, by distillation of the leaves and shoots either of the Bigarade or Bitter Orange, or of the Portugal or Sweet Orange. The essence of the former is by far the more fragrant, and commands double the price. Poiteau and Risso[500] state that the leaves of the Brigaradier with bitter fruit are by far the richest in essential oil among all the allied leaves; they are obtained in the lemon-growing districts of the Mediterranean where the essence is manufactured. Lemon-trees being mostly grafted on orange-stocks, the latter during the summer put forth shoots, which are allowed to grow till they are often some feet in length. The cultivator then cuts them off, binds them in bundles, and conveys them to the distiller of _Petit Grain_. The strongest shoots are frequently reserved for walking-sticks. The leaves of the two sorts of orange are easily distinguished by their smell when crushed. Essence of Petit Grain, which in odour has a certain resemblance to Neroli, is used in perfumery and especially in the manufacture of Eau de Cologne.

According to Gladstone (1864) it consists mainly of a hydrocarbon probably identical with that from oil of Neroli.

=Essential Oil of Orange Peel=—is largely made at Messina and also in the south of France. It is extracted by the sponge-, or by the _écuelle_-process, and partly from the Bigarade and partly from the Sweet or Portugal Orange, the scarcely ripe fruit being in either case employed. The oil made from the former is much more valuable than that obtained from the latter, and the two are distinguished in price-currents as _Essence de Bigarade_ and _Essence de Portugal_.

These essences are but little consumed in England, in liqueur-making and in perfumery. For what is known of their chemical nature, the reader can consult the works named at foot[501].

=Essence of Cedrat=—The true Citron or Cedrat tree is _Citrus medica_ Risso, and is of interest as being the only member of the Orange tribe the fruit of which was known in ancient Rome. The tree itself, which appears to have been cultivated in Palestine in the time of Josephus, was introduced into Italy in about the 3rd century. In A.D. 1003 it was much grown at Salerno near Naples, whence its fruits were sent as presents to the Norman princes[502].

[500] _Loc. c._, edition of 1873. 211.

[501] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xiv. (1860) 305. 306: Gladstone, _Journ. of Chem. Soc._ xvii. (1864) 1: Wright (and Piesse) in _Yearbook of Pharmacy_, 1871. 546; 1873. 518; _Journ. of Chem. Soc._ xi. (1873) 552, &c. We may moreover point out the existence of a crystallized constituent of the oil of orange peel from the island of Curaçao. It was noticed as long ago as the year 1771 by Gaubius: “Sal aromaticus, nativus, ex oleo corticum mali aurei Curassavici,” in his book, “Adersariorum varii argumenti, lib. unus.” Leidae, 1771. 27.

[502] Gallesio, _Traité du Citrus_, 1811. 222.

At the present day, the citron appears to be nowhere cultivated extensively, the more prolific lemon tree having generally taken its place. It is however scattered along the Western Riviera, and is also grown on a small scale about Pizzo and Paola on the western coast of Calabria, in Sicily, Corsica, and Azores. Its fruits, which often weigh several pounds, are chiefly sold for being candied. For this purpose the peel, which is excessively thick, is salted and in that state shipped to England and Holland. The fruit has a very scanty pulp[503].

Essence of Cedrat which is quoted in some price-lists may be prepared from the scarcely ripe fruit by the sponge-process; but as it is more profitable to export the fruit salted, it is very rarely manufactured, and that which bears its name is for the most part fictitious.

FRUCTUS BELÆ.

_Bela_; _Bael Fruit_, _Indian Bael_, _Bengal Quince_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Ægle Marmelos_[504] Correa (_Cratæva Marmelos_ L.), a tree found in most parts of the Indian peninsula, which is often planted in the neighbourhood of temples, being esteemed sacred by the Hindus. It is truly wild in the forests of the Coromandel Ghâts and of the Western Himalaya, ascending often to 4,000 feet and growing gregarious when wild.

It attains a height of 30-40 feet, is usually armed with strong sharp thorns and has trifid leaves, the central leaflet being petiolate and larger than the lateral. The fruit is a large berry, 2 to 4 inches in diameter, variable in shape, being spherical or somewhat flattened like an orange, ovoid, or pyriform[505], having a smooth hard shell; the interior divided into 10-15 cells each containing several woolly seeds, consists of a mucilaginous pulp, which becomes very hard in drying. In the fresh state the fruit is very aromatic, and the juicy pulp which it contains has an agreeable flavour, so that when mixed with water and sweetened, it forms a palatable refrigerant drink. The fruit is never eaten as dessert, though its pulp is sometimes made into a preserve with sugar.

The fruit of the wild tree is described as small, hard, and flavourless, remaining long on the tree. The bark of the stem and root, the flowers and the expressed juice of the leaves are used in medicine by the natives of India.

=History=—The tree under the name of _Bilva_[506] is constantly alluded to as an emblem of increase and fertility in ancient Sanskrit poems, some of which as the Yajar Veda are supposed to have been written not later than 1000 B.C.—Constantinus Africanus was acquainted with the fruit under notice.

[503] Oribasius accurately describes the citron as a fruit consisting of three parts, namely a central acid pulp, a thick and fleshy zest and an aromatic outer coat.—_Medicinalia collecta_, lib. i. c. 64.

[504] _Ægle_, one of the Hesperides.—_Marmeloes_ from the Portuguese _marmelo_, a quince.—Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, part 11.

[505] In the Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg in Java, three varieties are grown, namely—_fructibus oblongis_, _fructibus subglobosis_, and _macrocarpa_.

[506] We are indebted to Professor Monier Williams of Oxford for pointing out to us many references to _Bilva_ in the Sanskrit writings.

Garcia de Orta, who resided in India as physician to the Portuguese viceroy at Goa in the 16th century, wrote an account of the fruit under the name of _Marmelos de Benguala_ (Bengal Quince) _Cirifole_ or _Beli_[507], describing its use in dysentery.

In the following century it was noticed by Bontius, in whose writings edited by Piso[508] there is a bad figure of the tree as _Malum Cydonium_. It was also figured by Rheede,[509] and subsequently under the designation of _Bilack_ or _Bilack tellor_ by Rumphius.[510] The latter states that it is indigenous to Gujarat, the eastern parts of Java, Sumbawa and Celebes, and that it has been introduced into Amboina.

But although _Ægle Marmelos_ has thus been long known and appreciated in India, the use of its fruit as a medicine attracted no attention in Europe till about the year 1850. The dried fruit which has a place in the _British Pharmacopœia_ is now not unfrequently imported.

=Description=—We have already described the form and structure of the fruit, which for medicinal use should be dried when in a half ripe state. It is found in commerce in dried slices having on the outer side a smooth greyish shell enclosing a hard, orange or red, gummy pulp in which are some of the 10 to 15 cells existing in the entire fruit. Each cell includes 6 to 10 compressed oblong seeds nearly 3 lines in length, covered with whitish woolly hairs. When broken the pulp is seen to be nearly colourless internally, the outside alone having assumed an orange tint. The dried pulp has a mucilaginous, slightly acid taste, without aroma, astringency, or sweetness.

There is also imported Bael fruit which has been collected when ripe, as shown by the well-formed seeds. Such fruits arrive broken irregularly and dried, or sawn into transverse slices and then dried, or lastly entire, in which case they retain some of their original fragrance resembling that of elemi.

=Microscopic Structure=—The rind of the fruit is covered with a strong cuticle, and further shows two layers, the one exhibiting not very numerous oil-cells, and the other an inner made up of sclerenchyme. The tissue of the pulp, which, treated with water, swells into an elastic mass, consists of large cells with considerable cavities between them. The seeds when moistened yield an abundance of mucilage nearly in the same way as White Mustard or Linseed. In the epidermis of the seeds certain groups of cells are excessively lengthened, and thus constitute the curious woolly hairs already noticed. They likewise afford mucilage in the same way as the seed itself.

=Chemical Composition=—We are unable to confirm the remarkable analyses of the drug alluded to in the _Pharmacopœia of India_;[511] nor can we explain by any chemical examination upon what constituent the alleged medicinal efficacy of bael depends.

[507] _Sirí-phal_ and _Bel_ are Hindustani names.—See also Flückiger, _Documente_, 29.

[508] _De Indiæ re nat. et med._ 1658, lib. vi. c. 8.

[509] _Hort. Malab._ iii. (1682) tab. 37 (Covalam).

[510] _Herb. Amb._ i. tab. 81.

[511] Edition 1868, pp. 46 and 441.

The pulp moistened with cold water yields a red liquid containing chiefly mucilage, and (probably) pectin which separates if the liquid is concentrated by evaporation. The mucilage may be precipitated by neutral acetate of lead or by alcohol, but is not coloured by iodine. It may be separated by a filter into a portion truly soluble (as proved by the addition of alcohol or acetate of lead), and another, comprehending the larger bulk, which is only swollen like tragacanth, but is far more glutinous and completely transparent.

Neither a per-nor a proto-salt of iron shows the infusion to contain any appreciable quantity of tannin,[512] nor is the drug in any sense possessed of astringent properties.

=Uses=—Bael is held in high repute in India as a remedy for dysentery and diarrhœa; at the same time it is said to act as a laxative where constipation exists.

=Adulteration=—The fruit of _Feronia Elephantum_ Correa, which has a considerable external resemblance to that of _Ægle Marmelos_ and is called by Europeans _Wood Apple_, is sometimes supplied in India for bael. It may be easily distinguished: it is _one-celled_ with a large five-lobed cavity (instead of 10 to 15 cells) filled with numerous seeds. The tree has pinnate leaves with 2 or 3 pairs of leaflets. We have seen _Pomegranate Peel_ offered as _Indian Bael_.[513]

SIMARUBEÆ.

LIGNUM QUASSIÆ.

_Quassia_, _Quassia Wood_, _Bitter Wood_; F. _Bois de Quassia de la Jamaïque_, _Bois amer_; G. _Jamaica Quassiaholz_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Picræna excelsa_ Lindl. (_Quassia excelsa_ Swartz, _Simaruba excelsa_ DC., _Picrasma excelsa_ Planchon), a tree 50 to 60 feet in height, somewhat resembling an ash and having inconspicuous greenish flowers and black shining drupes the size of a pea. It is common on the plains and lower mountains of Jamaica, and is also found in the islands of Antigua and St. Vincent. It is called in the West Indies _Bitter Wood_ or _Bitter Ash_.

=History=—Quassia wood was introduced into Europe about the middle of the last century. It was derived from _Quassia amara_ L., a shrub or small tree with handsome crimson flowers, belonging to the same order, native of Panama, Venezuela, Guiana, and Northern Brazil. It was subsequently found that the _Bitter Wood_ of Jamaica which Swartz and other botanists referred to the same genus, possessed similar properties, and as it was obtainable of much larger size, it has since the end of the last century been generally preferred. The wood of _Q. amara_, called _Surinam Quassia_, is however still used in France and Germany.[514]

[512] We are thus at variance with Collas of Pondichéry, who attributes to the ripe fruit 5 _per cent. of tannin_.—_Hist. nat. etc. du Bel ou Vilva_ in _Revue Coloniale_, xvi. (1856) 220-238.

[513] 40 bags in a drug sale, 8th May, 1873.

[514] The _Pharmacopœa Germanica_ of 1872 expressly forbids the use of the wood of _Picræna_ in place of _Quassia_.

The first to give a good account of Jamaica quassia was John Lindsay,[515] a medical practitioner of the island, who writing in 1791 described the tree as long known not only for its excellent timber, but also as a useful medicine in putrid fevers and fluxes. He adds that the _bark_ is exported to England in considerable quantity—“for the purposes of the brewers of ale and porter.”

Quassia, defined as the wood, bark, and root of _Q. amara_ L., was introduced into the London Pharmacopœia of 1788; in the edition of 1809, it was superseded by the wood of _Picræna excelsa_. In the stock-book of a London druggist (J. Gurney Bevan, of Plough Court, Lombard Street) we find it first noticed in 1781 (as _rasuræ_), when it was reckoned as having cost 4_s._ 2_d._ per lb.

=Description=—The quassia wood of commerce consists of pieces of the stem and larger branches, some feet in length, and often as thick as a man’s thigh. It is covered with bark externally of a dusky grey or blackish hue, white and fibrous within, which it is customary to strip off and reject. The wood, which is of a very light yellowish tint, is tough and strong, but splits easily. In transverse section it exhibits numerous fine close medullary rays, which intersect the rather obscure and irregular rings resembling those of annual growth of our indigenous woody stems. The centre is occupied by a cylinder of pith of minute size. In a longitudinal section, whether tangential or radial, the wood appears transversely striated by reason of the small vertical height of the medullary rays.

The wood often exhibits certain blackish markings due to the mycelium of a fungus; they have sometimes the aspect of delicate patterns, and at others appear as large dark patches.

Quassia has a strong, pure bitter taste, but is devoid of odour. It is always supplied to the retail druggist in the form of turnings or raspings, the former being obtained in the manufacture of the _Bitter Cups_, now often seen in the shops.

=Microscopic Structure=—The wood consists for the most part of elongated pointed cells (libriform), traversed by medullary rays, each of the latter being built up of about 15 vertical layers of cells. The single layers contain from one to three rows of cells. The ligneous rays thus enclosed by medullary parenchyme, are intersected by groups of tissue constituting the above-mentioned irregular rings. On a longitudinal section this parenchyme exhibits numerous crystals of oxalate of calcium, and sometimes deposits of yellow resin. The latter is more abundant in the large vessels of the wood. Oxalate and resin are the only solid matters perceptible in the tissues of this drug.

=Chemical Composition=—The bitter taste of quassia is due to _Quassiin_, which was first obtained, no doubt, from the wood of _Quassia amara_, by Winckler in 1835. It was analysed by Wiggers,[516] who assigned it the formula C₁₀H₁₂O₃, now regarded as doubtful. According to the latter, quassiin is an irresolvable, neutral substance, crystallizable from dilute alcohol or from chloroform. It requires for solution about 200 parts of water, but is not soluble in ether; it forms an insoluble compound with tannic acid. Quassia wood is said to yield about ⅒ per cent. of quassiin. A watery infusion of quassia, especially if a little caustic lime has been added to the drug, displays a slight fluorescence, due apparently to quassiin. Goldschmiedt and Weidel (1877) failed in obtaining quassiin. They isolated the yellow resin which we mentioned above, and stated that it yields protocatechuic acid when melted with potash. Quassia wood dried at 100° C. yielded us 7·8 per cent. of ash.

[515] _Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh_, iii. (1794) 205. tab. 6.

[516] Liebig’s _Annalen der Pharm._ xxi. (1837) 40.

=Commerce=—The quantity of Bitter Wood shipped from Jamaica in 1871 was 56 tons.[517]

=Uses=—The drug is employed as a stomachic and tonic. It is poisonous to flies, and is not without narcotic properties in respect to the higher animals.

=Substitutes=—The wood of _Quassia amara_ L., the _Bitter Wood of Surinam_, bears a close resemblance, both external and structural, to the drug just noticed; but its stems never exceed four inches in diameter and are commonly still thinner. Their thin, brittle bark is of a greyish yellow, and separates easily from the wood. The latter is somewhat denser than the quassia of Jamaica, from which it may be distinguished by its medullary rays being composed of a single or less frequently of a double row of cells, whereas in the wood of _Picræna excelsa_, they consist of two or three rows, less frequently of only one.

Surinam Quassia Wood is exported from the Dutch colony of Surinam. The quantity shipped thence during the nine months ending 30th Sept, 1872, was 264,675 lb.[518]

The bark of _Samadera indica_ Gärtn., a tree of the same natural order, owes its bitterness to a principle[519] which agrees perhaps with quassiin. The aqueous infusion of the bark is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, a compound of quassiin probably being formed. A similar treatment applied to quassia would possibly easier afford quassiin than the extraction of the wood by means of alcohol, as performed by Wiggers.

BURSERACEÆ.

OLIBANUM.

_Gummmi-resina Olibanum_, _Thus masculum_[520]; _Olibanum_, _Frankincense_; F. _Encens_; G. _Weihrauch_.

[517] _Blue Book_, Island of Jamaica, for 1871.

[518] _Consular Reports_, No. 3, presented to Parliament, July 1873.

[519] Rost van Tonningen, _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers (Canstatt) for 1858. 75; _Pharm. Journ._ ii. (1872) 644. 654.

[520] The λίβανος of the Greeks, the Latin _Olibanum_, as well as the Arabic _Lubân_, and the analogous sounds in other languages, are all derived from the Hebrew _Lebonah_, signifying _milk_: and modern travellers who have seen the frankincense trees state that the fresh juice is _milky_, and hardens when exposed to the air. The word _Thus_, on the other hand, seems to be derived from the verb θύειν, _to sacrifice_.

=Botanical Origin=—Olibanum is obtained from the stem of several species of _Boswellia_, inhabiting the hot and arid regions of Eastern Africa, near Cape Gardafui and of the southern coast of Arabia. Notwithstanding the recent elaborate and valuable researches of Birdwood,[521] the olibanum trees are still but imperfectly known, as will be evident in the following enumeration:—

1. _Boswellia Carterii_ Birdw.—This includes the three following forms, which may be varieties of a single species, or may belong to two or more species,—a point impossible to settle until more perfect materials shall have been obtained.

a. _Boswellia_ No. 5, Oliver, _Flora of Tropical Africa_, I. (1868) 324, _Mohr meddu_ or _Mohr madow_ of the natives; _meddu_, according to Playfair and Hildebrandt, means black. The leaflets are crenate, undulate, and pubescent on both sides.

This tree is found in the Somali Country, growing a little inland in the valleys and on the lower part of the hills, never on the range close to the sea. It yields the olibanum called _Lubân Bedowi_ or _Lubân Sheheri_ (Playfair).

Hildebrandt describes the Mohr meddu as a tree 12 to 15 feet high, with a few branches, indigenous to the limestone range of Ahl or Serrut, in the northern part of the Somali Country, where it occurs in elevations of from 3000 to 5000 feet. To this tree belongs the figure 58 in Bentley and Trimen’s _Medicinal Plants_ (Part 20, 1877).

b. _Boswellia_ No. 6, Oliver, _op. cit._, Birdwood, _Linn. Trans._ xxvii., tab. 29.—Sent by Playfair among the specimens of the preceding, and with the same indications and native name. This form, the “Mohr meddu” of the Somalis, has obscurely serrulate or almost entire leaflets, velvety and paler below, glabrous above. The figure (which is not given in the reprint) is very much the same as that of the following.

c. _Maghrayt d’sheehaz_ of the Maharas, Birdwood, _l. c._ tab. 30, reprinted in Cooke’s report, plate I; Carter, _Journ. of Bombay Branch of R. Asiat. Soc._ ii., tab. 23; _B. sacra_ Flückiger, _Lehrbuch der Pharmakognosie des Pflanzenreiches_, 1867. 31.—Ras Fartak, S.E. coast of Arabia, growing in the detritus of limestone cliffs and close to the shore,[522] also near the village of Merbat (Carter, 1844-1846).

Birdwood’s figure refers to a specimen propagated in the Victoria Gardens, Bombay, from cuttings sent there from the Somali country by Playfair.

2. _B. Bhau-Dajiana_ Birdw. _l. c._ tab. 31, or plate III. of the reprint.—Somali Country (Playfair); cultivated in Victoria Gardens, Bombay, where it flowered in 1868. The differences between this species and B. Carterii are not very obvious.

[521] _On the Genus_ Boswellia, _with descriptions and figures of three new species.—Linn. Trans._ xxvii. (1870) 111. 148. This paper is reprinted as an appendix to Cooke’s “Report on the gums, resins, ... of the Indian Museum,” Lond. 1874.—The original plates are much superior and more complete than the reprints.—The materials on which Dr. Birdwood’s observations have been chiefly founded, and to which we also have had access, are,—1. Specimens collected during an expedition to the Somali Coast made by Col. Playfair in 1862.—2. Growing Plants at Bombay and Aden, raised from cuttings sent by Playfair.—3. A specimen obtained by H. J. Carter in 1846, near Ras Fartak, on the south-east coast of Arabia, and still growing in Victoria Gardens, Bombay; and figured by Carter in _Journ. of Bombay Branch of R. Asiatic_ Soc. ii. (1848) 380, tab. 23.

[522] In the λιβανωτοϕόρος χώρα of the antiquity, the hill region (where Mohr meddu is growing) used to be contrasted with the coast region, the Sahil. See Sprenger (quoted further on, page 136, footnote 3), page 90.

3. _Boswellia_ No. 4, Oliver, _op. cit._—Bunder Murayah, Somali Country (Playfair). Grows out of the rock, but sometimes in the detritus of limestone; never found on the hills close to the sea, but further inland and on the highest ground. Yields _Lubân Bedowi_ and _L. Sheheri_; was received at Kew as _Mohr add_, a name applied by Birdwood also to _B. Bhau-Dajiana_.

From the informations due to Captains Miles[523] and Hunter and to Haggenmacher[524] it would appear that the _Beyo_ or _Beyu_ of the Somalis (Boido, Capt. Hunter) is agreeing with this tree.

4. _Boswellia neglecta_, S. Le M. Moore, in _Journ. of Botany_, xv.(1877) 67 and tab. 185. This tree has been collected by Hildebrandt in the limestone range, Ahl or Serrut, in the northern part of the Somali Country. It occurs in elevations of 1000 to 1800 metres, and attains a height of 5 to 6 metres. Its exudation, according to Hildebrandt, is collected in but small quantity and mixed with the other kinds of olibanum. Moore gives _Murlo_ as the vernacular name of this tree, Hildebrandt calls it _Mohr add_.

In addition to the foregoing, from which the olibanum of commerce is collected, it may be convenient to mention also the following:—

1. _Boswellia Frereana_ Birdw., a well-marked and very distinct species of the Somali Country, which the natives call _Yegaar_. It abounds in a highly fragrant resin collected and sold as _Lubân Meyeti_ or _Lubân Mati_, which we regard to be the substance originally known as _Elemi_ (see this article).

2. _B. papyrifera_ Richard (_Plösslea floribunda_ Endl.), the “Makar” of Sennaar and the mountainous region ascending to 4000 feet above the level of the sea on the Abyssinian rivers Takazze and Mareb. It appears not to grow in the outer parts of north-eastern Africa. Its resin is not collected, and stated by Richard[525] to be transparent; it consists no doubt merely of resin (and essential oil?) without gum.[526]

3. _B. thurifera_ Colebr. (_B. glabra_ et _B. serrata_ Roxb.), the _Salai_ tree of India, produces a soft odoriferous resin which is used in the country as incense but is not the olibanum of commerce. The tree is particularly abundant on the trap hills of the Dekhan and Satpura range. Berg, in “Offizinelle Gewächse,” xiv. c. gives a good figure of this species.

=History=—The use of olibanum goes back to a period of extreme antiquity, as proved by the numerous references[527] in the writings of the Bible to _incense_, of which it was an essential ingredient. It is moreover well known that many centuries before Christ, the drug was one of the most important objects of the traffic which the Phœnicians[528] and Egyptians carried on with Arabia.

[523] See his picturesque description of the tree, _Journ. R. Geograph. Soc._ 22 (1872) 64.

[524] Flückiger, _Pharm. Journ._ viii. (1878) 805.

[525] _Tent. Floræ Abyssinicae_, i. (1847) 248; figure of the tree tab. xxxiii.

[526] See the paper quoted in note 2.

[527] As for instance, Exod. xxx. 34; I Chron. x. 29; Matth. ii. 11.

[528] Movers, _Das phönizische Alterthum_, iii. (1856) 99. 299.—Sprenger, _l. c._ p. 299, also points out the importance of the olibanum with regard to the commercial relations of those early periods.

Professor Dümichen[529] of Strassburg has discovered at the temple of Dayr el Báhri in Upper Egypt, paintings illustrating the traffic carried on between Egypt and a distant country called Punt or Pount as early as the 17th century B.C. In these paintings there are representations not only of bags of olibanum, but also of olibanum trees planted in tubs or boxes, being conveyed by ship from Arabia to Egypt. Inscriptions on the same building, deciphered by Professor D., describe with the utmost admiration the shipments of precious woods, heaps of incense, verdant incense trees,[530] ivory, gold, stimmi (sulphide of antimony), silver, apes, besides other productions not yet identified. The country Pount was first thought to be southern Arabia, but is now considered to comprehend the Somali coast, together with a portion of the opposite Arabian coast. Punt possibly refers to “Opone,” an old name for Hafoon, a place south of Cape Gardafui.

A detailed account of frankincense is given by Theophrastus[531] (B.C. 370-285) who relates that the commodity is produced in the country of the Sabæans, one of the most active trading nations of antiquity, occupying the southern shores of Arabia. It appears from Diodorus that the Sabæans sold their frankincense to the Arabs, through whose hands it passed to the Phœnicians who disseminated the use of it in the temples throughout their possessions, as well as among the nations with whom they traded. The route of the caravans from south-eastern Arabia to Gaza in Palestine, has recently (1866) been pointed out by Professor Sprenger. Plutarch relates that when Alexander the Great captured Gaza, 500 talents of olibanum and 100 talents of myrrh were taken, and sent thence to Macedonia.

The _libanotophorous region_ of the old Sabæans is in fact the very country visited by Carter in 1844 and 1846, and lying as he states on the south coast of Arabia between long. 52° 47′ and 52° 23′ east.[532] It was also known to the ancients, at least to Strabo and Arrian, that the opposite African coast likewise produced olibanum,[533] as it is now doing almost exclusively; and the latter states that the drug is shipped partly to Egypt and partly to Barbaricon at the mouth of the Indus.

As exemplifying the great esteem in which frankincense was held by the ancients, the memorable gifts presented by the Magi to the infant Saviour will occur to every mind. A few other instances may be mentioned: Herodotus[534] relates that the Arabians paid to Darius, king of Persia, an annual tribute of 1000 talents of frankincense.

A remarkable Greek inscription, brought to light in modern times[535] on the ruins of the temple of Apollo at Miletus, records the gifts made to the shrine by Seleucus II., king of Syria (B.C. 246-227), and his brother Antiochus Hierax, king of Cilicia, which included in addition two vessels of gold and silver, ten talents of frankincense (λιβανωτοός) and one of myrrh.

[529] Dümichen (Johannes), _The fleet of an_ _Egyptian Queen from the 17th century before our era, and ancient Egyptian military parade, represented on a monument of the same age ... after a copy taken from the terrace of the temple of Dêr-el-Baheri_, translated from the German by Anna Dümichen, Leipzig, 1868.—See also Mariette-Bey, _Deir-el-Bahari_, Leipzig, 1877, Pl. 6, 7, 8.

[530] In one of the inscriptions they are referred to in terms which Professor D. has thus rendered:—“Thirty-one verdant incense trees brought among the precious things from the land of Punt for the majesty of this god Amon, the lord of the terrestrial thrones. Never has anything similar been seen since the foundation of the world.”

[531] _Hist. Plant._ lib. iv. c. 7.—See also Sprenger, _l.c._ 219.

[532] See also Sprenger, _Die alte Geographie Arabiens_. Bern, 1875. 296, 302, also 244.

[533] “Thus transfretanum,” Sprenger, 299.

[534] Rawlinson’s _Herodotus_, ii. (1858) 488.—Sprenger, _l. c._ 300, alludes to olibanum being exported to Babylonia and Persia.

[535] Chishull, _Antiquitates Asiaticæ_, Lond. 1758. 65-72.

The emperor Constantine made numerous offerings to the church under St. Silvester, bishop of Rome A.D. 314-335, of costly vessels and fragrant drugs and spices,[536] among which mention is made in several instances of _Aromata_ and _Aromata in incensum_, terms under which olibanum is to be understood.[537]

With regard to the consumption of olibanum in other countries, it is an interesting fact that the Arabs in their intercourse with the Chinese, which is known to have existed as early as the 1Oth century, carried with them _olibanum_, myrrh, dragon’s blood, and liquid storax,[538] drugs which are still imported from the west into China. The first-named is called _Ju-siang_, i.e. _milk perfume_, a curious allusion to its Arabic name _Lubân_ signifying _milk_. In the year 1872, Shanghai imported[539] of this drug no less than 1,360 peculs (181,333 lb.).

=Collection=—The fragrant gum-resin is distributed through the leaves and bark of the trees, and even exudes as a milky juice also from the flowers; its fragrance is stated to be already appreciable in a certain distance. Cruttenden,[540] who visited the Somali Country in 1843, thus describes the collecting of olibanum by the Mijjertheyn tribe, whose chief port is Bunder Murayah (lat. 11° 43′ N.)[541]:—

“During the hot season the men and boys are daily employed in collecting gums, which process is carried on as follows:—About the end of February or beginning of March, the Bedouins visit all the trees in succession and make a deep incision in each, peeling off a narrow strip of bark for about 5 inches below the wound. This is left for a month when a fresh incision is made in the same place, but deeper. A third month elapses and the operation is again repeated, after which the gum is supposed to have attained a proper degree of consistency. The mountain sides are immediately covered with parties of men and boys, who scrape off the large clear globules into a basket, whilst the inferior quality that has run down the tree is packed separately. The gum when first taken from the tree is very soft, but hardens quickly.... Every fortnight the mountains are visited in this manner, the trees producing larger quantities as the season advances, until the middle of September, when the first shower of rain puts a close to the gathering that year.”

The informations due to J. M. Hildebrandt, who visited the Somali in 1875, are in accordance with Cruttenden’s statements. The former says, that the latest crops are greatly injured by the rains, the drug being partly dissolved by the water.

[536] These remarkable gifts are enumerated by Vignoli in his _Liber Pontificalis_, Rome, 1724-55, and include beside Olibanum, _Oleum nardinum_, _Oleum Cyprium_, _Balsam_, _Storax Isaurica_, _Stacte_, _Aromata cassiæ_, _Saffron_ and _Pepper_.

[537] The ancient name of Cape Gardafui was _Promontorium Aromatum_.

[538] Bretschneider, _Ancient Chinese_, &c. Lond. 1871. 19.

[539] _Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for_ 1872, p. 4.

[540] _Trans. Bombay Geograph. Soc._ vii. (1846) 121.

[541] See sketch of the Somali coast. _Pharm. Journ._ viii. (13 Apr. 1878) 806.

Carter[542] describing the collection of the drug in southern Arabia, writes thus:—“The gum is procured by making longitudinal incisions through the bark in the months of May and December, when the cuticle glistens with intumescence from the distended state of the parts beneath; the operation is simple, and requires no skill on the part of the operator. On its first appearance the gum comes forth white as milk, and according to its degree of fluidity, finds its way to the ground, or concretes on the branch near the place from which it first issued, from whence it is collected by men and boys employed to look after the trees by the different families who possess the land in which they grow.” According to Captain Miles,[543] the drug is not collected by the people of the country, but by Somalis who cross in numbers from the opposite coast, paying the Arab tribes for the privilege. The Arabian Lubân, he says, is considered inferior to the African.

It would even appear that the collection of the drug has ceased in Arabia, and that the names of Lubân Maheri or Mascati or Sheehaz, referring to the coast of Arabia between Ras Fartak (52° 10′ E.) and Ras Morbas (54° 34′) are now applied to the olibanum brought there from the opposite African coast.[544] Hildebrandt informed one of us (letter dated 26th Dec., 1878) that he has ascertained at Aden, that all the frankincense imported in Aden comes from Africa.

=Description=—Olibanum as found in commerce varies rather considerably in quality and appearance. It may in general terms be described as a dry gum-resin, consisting of detached tears up to an inch in length, of globular, pear-shaped, clavate, or stalactitic form, mixed with more or less irregular lumps of the same size. Some of the longer tears are slightly agglutinated, but most are distinct. The predominant forms are rounded,—angular fragments being less frequent, though the tears are not seldom fissured. Small pieces of the translucent brown papery bark are often found adhering to the flat pieces. The “Lubân Fasous Bedow” as exported from the Mijjertheyn district, in the eastern part of the Somali Country, is in very fine large tears.

The colour of the drug is pale yellowish or brownish, but the finer qualities consist of tears which are nearly colourless or have a greenish hue. The smallest grains only are transparent, the rest are translucent and somewhat milky, and not transparent even after the removal of the white dust with which they are always covered. But if heated to about 94° C., they become almost transparent. When broken they exhibit a rather dull and waxy surface. Examined under the polarizing microscope no trace of crystallization is observable.

Olibanum softens in the mouth; its taste is terebinthinous and slightly bitter, but by no means disagreeable. Its odour is pleasantly aromatic, but is only fully developed when the gum-resin is exposed to an elevated temperature. At 100° C. the latter softens without actually fusing, and if the heat be further raised decomposition begins.

[542] See my paper on Luban Mati and Olibanum, _Pharm. Journ._ viii. (1878) 805, also Hildebrandt’s note in the “Sitzungs-Bericht der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin,” 19th Nov. 1878, 195.—F. A. F..

[543] _Loc. cit._

[544] _On the neighbourhood of Bunder Murayah_, in _Journ. of R. Geograph. Society_, xxii. (1872) 65.

=Chemical Composition=—Cold water quickly changes olibanum into a soft whitish pulp, which when rubbed down in a mortar forms an emulsion. Immersed in spirit of wine, a tear of olibanum is not altered much in form, but it becomes of an almost pure opaque white. In the first case the water dissolves the gum, while in the second the alcohol removes the resin. We find that pure olibanum treated with spirit of wine leaves 27 to 35 of gum,[545] which forms a thick mucilage with three parts of water. Dissolved in 5 parts of water it yields a neutral solution, which is precipitated by perchloride of iron as well as by silicate of sodium, but not by neutral acetate of lead. It is consequently a gum of the same class as gum arabic, if not identical with it. Its solution contains the same amount of lime as gum arabic affords.

The resin of olibanum has been examined by Hlasiwetz (1867), according to whom it is a uniform substance having the composition C₂₀H₃₀O₃. We find that it is not soluble in alkalis, nor have we succeeded in converting it into a crystalline body by the action of dilute alcohol. It is not uniformly distributed throughout the tears; if they are broken after having been acted upon by dilute alcohol, it now and then happens that a clear stratification is perceptible, showing a concentric arrangement.

Olibanum contains an essential oil, of which Braconnot (1808) obtained 5 per cent., Stenhouse (1840) 4 per cent., and Kurbatow (1871-1874) 7 per cent. According to Stenhouse it has a sp. gr. of 0·866, a boiling point of 179·4° C., and an odour resembling that of turpentine but more agreeable. Kurbatow separated this oil into two portions, the one of which has the formula C₁₀H₁₆, boils at 158° C., and combines with HCl to form crystals; the other contains oxygen. The bitter principle of olibanum forms an amorphous brown mass.

The resin of olibanum submitted to destructive distillation affords no umbelliferone. Heated with strong nitric acid it develops no peculiar colour, but at length camphretic acid (see Camphor) is formed, which may be also obtained from many resins and essential oils if submitted to the same oxidizing agent.

=Commerce=—The olibanum of Arabia is shipped from several small places along the coast between Damkote and Al Kammar, but the quantity produced in this district is much below that furnished by the Somali Country in Eastern Africa. The latter is brought to Zeyla, Berbera, Bunder Murayah, and many smaller ports, whence it is shipped to Aden or direct to Bombay. The trade is chiefly in the hands of Banians, and the great emporium for the drug is Bombay. A certain portion is shipped through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to Jidda,—Von Kremer[546] says to the value of £12,000 annually. The quantity exported from Bombay in the year 1872-73 was 25,100 cwt., of which 17,446 cwt. were shipped to the United Kingdom, and 6,184 cwt. to China.[547]

=Uses=—As a medicine olibanum is nearly obsolete, at least in Britain. The great consumption of the drug is for the incense used in the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches.

[545] I obtained 32·14 per cent. from the finest tears of the kind called Fasous Bedowi, with which I was presented by Capt. Hunter of Aden.—F. A. F..

[546] _Aegypten, Forschungen über Land und Volk_, Leipzig, 1863.

[547] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay for_ 1872-73, pt. ii. 78.

MYRRHA.

_Gummi-resina Myrrha_; _Myrrh_; F. _Myrrhe_; G. _Myrrhe_.

=Botanical Origin=—Ehrenberg who visited Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and Arabia in the years 1820-26, brought home with him specimens of the myrrh trees found at Ghizan (Gison or Dhizân), a town on the strip of coast-region called Tihâma, opposite the islands of Farsan Kebir and Farsan Seghir, and a little to the north of Lohaia, on the eastern side of the Red Sea, in latitude 16° 40′, and also on the neighbouring mountains of Djara (or Shahra) and Kara. Here the myrrh trees form the underwood of the forests of _Acacia_, _Moringa_, and _Euphorbia_. Nees von Esenbeck who examined these specimens, drew up from them a description of what he called _Balsamodendron Myrrha_, which he figured in 1828.[548]

After Ehrenberg’s herbarium had been incorporated in the Royal Herbarium of Berlin, Berg examined these specimens, and came to the conclusion that they consist of _two species_, namely that described and figured by Nees, and a second to which was attached (_correctly_ we must hope) two memoranda bearing the following words:—“_Ipsa Myrrhæ arbor ad Gison,—Martio_,” and “_Ex huic simillima arbore ad Gison ipse Myrrham effluentem legi_.[549] _Hæc specimina lecta sunt in montibus Djara et Kara Februario._” This plant Berg named _B. Ehrenbergianum_.[550] Oliver in his _Flora of Tropical Africa_ (1868)[551] is disposed to consider Berg’s plant the same as _B. Opobalsamun_ Kth., a tree or shrub yielding myrrh, found by Schweinfurth on the Bisharrin mountains in Abyssinia, not far from the coast between Suakin and Edineb. But Schweinfurth himself does not admit the identity of the two plants.[552] It is certain, however, that the myrrh of commerce is chiefly of African origin.

Captain F. M. Hunter, Assistant Resident of Aden, informed us[553] that the Arabian myrrh tree, the _Didthin_, is found not only in the southern provinces of Arabia, Yemen, and Hadramant, probably also in the southern part of Oman, but likewise on the range of hills which, on the African shore, runs parallel to the Somali coast. The Somalis who gather the myrrh in Arabia allege that the Arabian “Didthin” is identical with that of their own district. Its exudation is the true myrrh, “_Mulmul_” of the Somalis, the “_Mur_” of the Arabs, or “_Heerabole_”[554] of the Indians.

[548] _Plantæ Medicinales_, Düsseldorf, ii. (1828) tab. 355.

[549] On applying in 1872 to Prof. Ehrenberg to know if it were possible that we could _see_ this very specimen, we received the answer that it could not be found.

[550] Berg u. Schmidt, _Darstellung u. Beschreibung ... offizin. Gewächse_, iv. (1863) tab. xxix. d.; also _Bot. Zeitung_, 16 Mai, 1862. 155.

[551] Vol. i. 326.

[552] Petermann, _Geogr. Mittheilungen_, 1868. 127.

[553] Letters addressed in 1877 to F. A. F..

[554] _Bola_, _Bal_, or _Bol_ were names of the myrrh in the Egyptian antiquity.—Ehrenberg, _De Myrrhæ et Opocalpasi ... detectis plantis_, Berolini, 1841, fol.

Another myrrh tree, according to Captain Hunter, is growing in Ogadain and the districts round Harrar, that is between the 7th and 10th parallels, N. lat., and 43° to 50° E. long. This is the “_Habaghadi_” of the Somalis, which is not found in Arabia, nor in the coast range of the Somali country, but only at a considerable distance from the sea-shore. Its exudation is the coarse myrrh, habaghadi of the Somalis and Arabs and “_Baisabole_” of the Indians.

Hildebrandt has collected the didthin, or didin as he writes, in the coast range alluded to, that is in the Ahl or Serrut Mountains, where the tree is growing on sunny slopes in elevations of 500 to 1,500 metres. He has ascertained that it is identical with Ehrenberg’s tree, _Balsamodendron Myrrha_ Nees. It is a low tree of crippled appearance, attaining not more than 3 metres. This species must therefore be pointed out as the source of true myrrh of the European commerce.

=History=—(See also further on, Bissabol). Myrrh has been used from the earliest times together with olibanum as a constituent of incense,[555] perfumes, and unguents. It was an ingredient of the holy oil used in the Jewish ceremonial as laid down by Moses: and it was also one of the numerous components of the celebrated _Kyphi_ of the Egyptians, a preparation used in fumigations, medicine, and the process of embalming, and of which there were several varieties.

In the previous article we have pointed out (p. 137) several early references to myrrh in connection with olibanum, in which it is observable that the myrrh (when weights are mentioned) is always in the smaller quantity. Of the use of the drug in mediæval Europe there are few notices, but they tend to show that the commodity was rare and precious. This myrrh is recommended in the Anglo-Saxon Leech-books[556] to be used with frankincense in the superstitious medical practice of the 11th century. In a manuscript of the Monastery of Rheinau, near Schaffhausen, Switzerland, we also find that, apparently in the 11th century, myrrh as well as olibanum were used in ordeals in the “judicium aquæ bullientis.”[557] The drug was also used by the Welsh “Physicians of Myddfai” in the 13th century. In the Wardrobe accounts of Edward I. there is an entry under date 6th January, 1299, for gold, frankincense, and _myrrh_, offered by the king in his chapel on that day, it being the Feast of Epiphany.[558] Myrrh again figures in the accounts of Geoffroi de Fleuri,[559] master of the wardrobe (_argentier_) to Philippe le Long, king of France, where record is made of the purchase of—“4 onces d’estorat calmite” (see Styrax) “et _mierre_ (myrrh) ... encenz et laudanon,” (Ladanum, the resin of Cistus creticus L.)—for the funeral of John, posthumous son of Louis X., A.D. 1316.

Gold, silver, silk, precious stones, pearls, camphor, musk, _myrrh_, and spices are enumerated[560] as the presents which the Khan of Cathay sent to Pope Benedict XII. at Avignon about the year 1342. The myrrh destined for this circuitous route to Europe[561] was doubtless that of the Arabian traders, with whom the Chinese had constant intercourse during the middle ages. Myrrh in fact is still somewhat largely consumed in China.[562]

[555] Cantic. i 13, iii. 6; Genes. xliii. 11; Exod. ii. 12, 30, xxiii. 34-36; John xix. 39; Mark xv. 23; Proverbs vii. 17.

[556] Cockayne, _Leechdoms &c. of Early England_, ii. (1865) 295, 297.

[557] Range, _Adjurationen, Exorcismen, Benedictionen, &c., in Mittheilungen der antiquar. Gesellschaft in Zürich_, xii. (1859) 187.

[558] _Liber quotidianus Contrarotulatoris Garderobæ.... Edwardi I._, Lond. 1787. pp. xxxii. and 27.—The custom is still observed by the sovereigns of England, and the Queen’s oblation of gold, frankincense, and myrrh is still annually presented on the Feast of Epiphany in the Chapel Royal in London.

[559] Doüet d’Arcq, _Comptes de l’Argenterie des rois de France_, 1851. 19.

[560] Yule, _Cathay and the way thither_, ii. 357.

[561] For the costly presents in question _never reached their destination_, having been all plundered by the way!

[562] Shanghai imported in 1872, 18,600 lbs. of myrrh.—_Reports of Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for_ 1872, p. 4.

The name _Myrrh_ is from the Hebrew and Arabic _Mur_, meaning bitter, whence also the Greek σμύρνα. The ancient Egyptian _Bola_ or _Bal_, and the Sanskrit _Vola_ are preserved in the Persian and Indian words _Bol_, _Bola_, and _Heerabol_, well-known names for myrrh.

_Stacte_ (στακτὴ), a substance often mentioned by the ancients, is said by Pliny to be a spontaneous liquid exudation of the myrrh tree, more valuable than myrrh itself. The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea represents it as exported from Muza in Arabia[563] together with myrrh. Theophrastus[564] speaks of myrrh as of two kinds, solid and liquid. No drug of modern times has been identified with the _stacte_ or _liquid myrrh_ of the ancients: that it was a substance obtainable in quantity seems evident from the fact that 150 pounds of it, said to be the offering of an Egyptian city, were presented to St. Silvester at Rome, A.D. 314-335.[565]

The myrrh of the ancients was not always obtained from Arabia. The author of the Periplus,[566] who wrote about A.D. 64, records it to have been an export of Abalites, Malao, and Mosyllon (the last named the modern Berbera), ancient ports of the African coast outside the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb; and he even mentions that it is conveyed by small vessels to the opposite shores of Arabia.

=Secretion=—Marchand[567] who examined and figured the sections of a branch of three years’ growth of _B. Myrrha_, represents the gum-resin as chiefly deposited in the cortical layers, with a little in the medulla.

=Collection=—By the Somal tribe myrrh is largely collected as it flows out, incisions, according to Hildebrandt, being never practised. From the information given by Ehrenberg to Nees von Esenbeck,[568] it appears that myrrh when it first exudes is of an oily and then of a buttery appearance, yellowish white, gradually assuming a golden tint and becoming reddish as it hardens. It exudes from the bark like cherry-tree gum, and becomes dark and of inferior value by age. Although Ehrenberg says that the myrrh he saw was of fine quality, he does not mention it being gathered by the natives.

With regard to the localities[569] in which the drug is collected, Cruttenden,[570] who visited the Somali coast in 1843, says that myrrh is brought from the Wadi Nogâl, south west of Cape Gardafui, and from Murreyhan, Ogadain and Agahora; and that some few trees are found on the mountains behind Bunder Murayah. Major Harris[571] saw the myrrh tree in the Adel desert and in the jungle of the Háwash, on the way from Tajura to Shoa.

[563] Vincent, _Commerce of the Ancients_, ii. (1870) 316.—Muza or Moosa is supposed to be identical with a place still bearing that name lying about 20 miles east of Mokha.

[564] Lib. ix. c. 4.

[565] Vignolius, _Liber Pontificalis_, i. (1724) 95.

[566] Vincent, _op. cit._ ii. 127. 129. 135.

[567] _Recherches sur l’Organisation des Burseracées_, Paris, 1868, p. 42, pl. i.

[568] _Op. cit._ at p. 140, note 1.

[569] See paper with map in _Ocean Highways_, April, 1873, also _Pharm. Journ._ 19 April, 1873. 821, and Hanbury’s _Science Papers_, 378.

[570] _Trans. Bombay Geogr. Soc._ vii. (1846) 123.

[571] _Highlands of Æthiopia_ (1844) i. 426; ii. 414.

Vaughan[572] states that the Somali Country and the neighbourhood of Hurrur (or Harar or Adari, 9° 20′ N., 42° 17′ E.) south west of Zeila are the chief producing districts. It is generally brought to the great fair of Berbera held in November, December, and January, where it is purchased by the Banians of India, and shipped for Bombay.

It appears that all these informations rather refer to the Bisabol or Habaghadi variety of myrrh; only the first notice, due to Hildebrandt, applies to true myrrh.

Myrrh trees abound on the hills about Shugra and Sureea in the territory of the Fadhli or Fudthli tribe, lying to the eastward of Aden; myrrh is collected from them by Somalis who cross from the opposite coast for the purpose and pay a tribute for the privilege to the Arabs, who appear to be scarcely acquainted with this drug.[573] But a sample of it, received by one of us from Vaughan in 1852, and others we have since seen in London (and easily, recognized), proved it to be somewhat different from typical myrrh, and it is probably afforded by another species than Balsamodendron Myrrha.

It would thus appear that there are three different trees affording myrrh, namely that just alluded to, secondly the “Habaghadi,” and thirdly that growing east of Aden.