118. _BALSAM, or BALM OF GILEAD, is the dried juice of a low tree or
shrub_ (Amyris gileadensis), _which grows in several parts of Abyssinia
and Syria._
_This tree has spreading crooked branches, small bright green leaves,
growing in threes, and small white flowers on separate footstalks. The
petals are four in number, and the fruit is a small egg-shaped berry,
containing a smooth nut._
By the inhabitants of Syria and Egypt, this balsam, as it appears from the
authority of the Scriptures, was in great esteem in the highest periods of
antiquity. We are informed by Josephus, the Jewish historian, that the
balsam of Gilead was one of the trees which was given by the Queen of Saba
to King Solomon. Those Ishmaelitish merchants, who were the purchasers of
Joseph, are said to have been travelling from Gilead, on the eastern side
of Canaan, to Egypt, having their camels laden with "spicery, balm, and
myrrh." It was then, and it still is, considered one of the most valuable
medicines that the inhabitants of those countries possessed. The virtues,
however, which have been ascribed to it, exceed all rational bounds of
credibility.
The mode in which it is obtained is described by Mr. Bruce. He says that
the bark of the trees is cut, for this purpose, with an axe, at a time when
the juices are in their strongest circulation. These, as they ooze through
the wound, are received into small earthen bottles; and every day's produce
is gathered, and poured into a larger bottle, which is closely corked. When
the juice first issues from the wound, it is of light yellow colour, and
somewhat turbid appearance; but, as it settles, it becomes clear, has the
colour of honey, and appears more fixed and heavy than at first. Its smell,
when fresh, is exquisitely fragrant, and strongly pungent, not much unlike
that of volatile salts; but, if the bottle be left uncorked, it soon loses
this quality. Its taste is bitter, acrid, aromatic, and astringent.
The quantity of balsam yielded by one tree never exceeds sixty drops in a
day. Hence its scarcity is such that the genuine balsam is seldom exported
as an article of commerce. Even at Constantinople, the centre of trade of
those countries, it cannot, without great difficulty, be procured. In
Turkey it is in high esteem as a medicine, an odoriferous unguent, and a
cosmetic. But its stimulating properties upon the skin are such that the
face of a person unaccustomed to use it becomes red and swollen, and
continues so for some days afterward. The Turks also take it in small
quantities, in water, to fortify the stomach, and excite the animal
faculties.
119. _ROSE-WOOD_ (Amyris balsamifera) _is an odoriferous tree, with
smooth oval leaves, which grows in the Island of Jamaica._
The _wood_ of this tree is much used by cabinet-makers in this country for
the covering or veneering of tables and other furniture. Its grain is of
dark colour, and very beautiful. This tree yields an odoriferous _balsam_,
which is much esteemed, both as an external application for the cure of
wounds, and an internal medicine in various diseases.
120. _The COMMON MAPLE_ (Acer campestre) _is a low kind of tree, common
in woods and hedges, which has its leaves in lobes, blunt, and notched,
and green flowers in upright clusters._
By the Romans, the maple _wood_, when knotty and veined, was often highly
prized for furniture. The poet Virgil speaks of Evander sitting on a maple
throne. The knots of this wood were considered to resemble the figure of
birds, beasts, and other animals: and when boards, large enough for tables,
were found of this curious part of it, the extravagance of purchasers is
said to have been incredible. Indeed its value, in that madly luxurious
age, is stated to have been such, that, when, at any time, the Romans
reproached their wives for their extravagance in pearls, jewels, or other
rich trifles, the latter were accustomed to retort, and turn the _tables_
upon their husbands. Hence our expression of "turning the tables" upon any
person is said to have been derived.
With us the maple tree is used by turners, particularly for making cups,
which may be rendered so thin as to be almost transparent. This wood, where
it is devoid of knots, is remarkably white, and is sometimes used for
domestic furniture. On account of its lightness it is frequently employed
for musical instruments, and particularly for those of the violin kind.
121. _SUGAR MAPLE_ (Acer saccharinum) _is a North-American tree, which
grows to the height of fifty or sixty feet, and has somewhat hand-shaped
leaves, in five divisions, notched at the edges, and downy underneath._
This large and beautiful tree is much cultivated in America on account
chiefly of the _juice_ which it yields, and which is made into sugar. The
process of obtaining the juice is, in the spring of the year, to bore holes
about two inches deep into the tree, and to put into each of these holes a
projecting spout, by which it may be conveyed into troughs placed to
receive it. Each tree will afford from twenty to thirty gallons of juice,
from which may be obtained five or six pounds of sugar. The juice is clear,
of pleasant flavour; and, in its simple state, is sometimes drunk as a
remedy against the scurvy. The sugar, which is obtained from it by
evaporation, is clean to the eye, and very sweet, but it has a peculiar,
though not unpleasant taste. It may be clarified and refined in the same
manner as the common sugars. The juice of the maple furnishes also a
pleasant wine, and a very excellent vinegar.
The _wood_ of this tree is valuable as timber, and is also well adapted for
turnery and cabinet ware, more particularly as it is said not to be liable
to suffer by the depredations of insects.
Possessing these properties, and being sufficiently hardy to sustain the
rigours even of a cold climate, its culture, in our own country, would be
attended with great advantage, and cannot be too strongly recommended.
122. _The SYCAMORE_ (Acer pseudoplatanus, Fig. 70) _is a handsome tree of
British growth, which has leaves in five lobes unequally serrated; and
green flowers in pendant clusters._
It is peculiarly deserving of remark concerning this tree, that it grows
better near the sea than in any other situation, and that plantations of
sycamores may be so made as even to defend the herbage of the adjacent
country from the spray, and consequently from the injurious effects of the
sea. Its growth is quick, yet it will increase in size until it is two
hundred years old. The soil in which it best flourishes is a loose black
earth. The only inconveniences attending it in plantations is the early
shedding of its leaves.
In the spring of the year the inhabitants of some parts of Scotland bore
holes through the bark of the sycamore, at the distance of about twelve
inches from the root, and suffer the _juice_ to drain into vessels, to the
amount of eight or nine quarts a day from each tree. This liquor they
convert into a kind of wine; and, if the watery part were evaporated, a
useful sugar might be obtained from it.
The _wood_ of the sycamore is soft and white, and was formerly much in
request by turners, for making trenchers, dishes, bowls, and other
articles; but, since the general introduction of earthen-ware for all these
purposes, its value has greatly decreased.
123. _CRANBERRIES are a small red fruit with purple dots, produced by a
slender wiry plant_ (Vaccinium oxycoccos), _which grows in the peaty bogs
of several parts of the north of England, and also in Norfolk,
Lincolnshire, and Cambridgeshire._
_The leaves are small, somewhat oval, and rolled back at the edges, and
the stem is thread-shaped and trailing. The blossoms are small, but
beautiful, each consisting of four distinct petals rolled back to the
base, and of deep flesh colour._
The collecting of cranberries is a tiresome and disagreeable employment, as
each berry, which seldom exceeds the size of a pea, grows on a separate
stalk, and the morasses in which they grow are frequently very deep.
Cranberries are much used in the northern counties, and great quantities of
them are bottled and sent to London. So considerable a traffic in this
fruit is carried on, that, at Longtown in Cumberland, the amount of a
market day's sale, during the season for gathering it, is stated by Dr.
Withering to be from 20_l._ to 30_l._ Cranberries begin to ripen about the
month of August, and continue in perfection for some weeks.
They are much used in confectionary, but particularly in tarts; their rich
flavour being very generally esteemed. The usual mode of preserving them is
in dry bottles, corked so closely as to exclude all access of the external
air: some persons, however, fill up the bottles with spring water. Others
prepare this fruit with sugar. From the juice of cranberries, mixed with a
certain portion of sugar, and properly fermented, a grateful and wholesome
wine may be made. The inhabitants of Sweden use this fruit only for the
cleaning of silver plate.
A considerable quantity of cranberries is annually imported, into this
country, from North America and Russia. These are larger than our own, of a
different species, and by no means of so pleasant flavour.
124. There are three other species of fruit belonging to the cranberry
tribe, which grow wild in this country, on heaths or in woods. These are
BILBERRIES, or BLEA-BERRIES (_Vaccinium myrtillus_), which are occasionally
eaten in milk, and in tarts, and which afford a violet-coloured dye: GREAT
BILBERRIES (_V. uliginosum_), which, in France, are sometimes employed to
tinge white wines red: and RED WHORTLE-BERRIES (_V. vitis idæa_), which,
though not of very grateful flavour, are occasionally used in tarts, rob,
and jelly.
125. _The COMMON HEATH, or LING_ (Erica vulgaris), _is a well-known
plant, with numerous small rose-coloured flowers, which grows wild on
heaths and mountainous wastes, in nearly every part of England._
The principal use to which the heath is applied is for making brooms or
besoms. It is likewise bound into fagots, and employed as fuel,
particularly for ovens; and is, not unfrequently, employed in the filling
up of drains, and the morassy parts of roads, previously to their being
covered with earth, stones, and other durable materials. In the Highlands
of Scotland, the poorer inhabitants make walls, for their cottages, with
alternate layers of heath and a kind of mortar made of black earth and
straw: they likewise thatch their cabins with it, and make their beds of
it. The inhabitants of Islay, one of the western islands of Scotland, are
said to brew a wholesome kind of beer from one part of malt, and two parts
of the young tops of heath. The _stalks_ and _tops_ may be rendered of
considerable service in the tanning of leather; and in dyeing woollen cloth
an orange colour. Bees are partial to the _flowers_; but the honey which
they form, after having fed upon these flowers, acquires a reddish tint.
The _leaves_ and _seeds_ of heath afford a grateful food to grouse, and
other animals.