FRANKINCENSE.
Kundur, . . DUKH. Kamanan, Manan,MALAY.
Encens, FR: Minan, Kamayan„ Incenso, . . . IT , SP. Kandncam, . . . TA.m.
Of this there are several ldnds in commerce. The best are the Arabian or tear olibanutn, the African, and the East Indian or stalactitic. Olibanum and b'delliurn, fragrant resins from species of Boswellia, are obtained in India from the Boswellia glabra, and the gum-resin of the Canarium strictum, Rork, is also fragrant. The oleo-resin of the Abies excelsa, or Norway spruce fir, is known as common frankincense ; and in India the oleo-resin of Pinus longifolia is also so called. Some of the frankincense of European markets is doubtless obtained from the Juniperus lycia ; and a tree of America is called the frank incense pine.
The substance called Kundricum by the Tamil people is very common iii the Indian bazars, and is used as an incense in religious ceremonies equally by the Hindus and Portuguese Christians, being, though not quite of so grateful an odour, cheaper than benzoin. It is supposed by the
Mahomedan medical men to be a species of oli banum, and they give the name of Kundur to both ; but it is very unlike olibanum in its appearance, being always seen in pretty large agglutinated masses, composed of light-brown and yellowish tears, and having a strange stony kind of hardness when pressed betwixt the teeth ; whereas the olibanum is in separate small roundish balls or large grains which do not give the same sensation on being cl'iewed, nay, even stick to the teeth. The Kundricum is generally brought to Southern India from Madagascar, from the coast of Borne,o, and also from Pedir on the island of Sumatra. Common frankincense or thus is a spontaneous exudation from the spruce, the Abies excelsa, D.C. —Ains. Mat. Med. p.,16 ; Rirdwood, Veg. Prod.