The principal exports of myrrh take place, as before stated, from Berbera; but several other ports participate in a minor degree. The drug is shipped from all parts of the Somali Coast to Mokha, Jedda, Aden, Makulla, the Persiau Gulf, India, and China. Georges Revolt mcntioas 3 ports on tho Medjourtine coast as receiving it for shipment :—Beader Gasein, 30 bohars (of say 300 lb.) annually ; Borah, 3 bohars annually; and Haffoun, 25 bohars iu 1877. This is mainly bissa-bol, of which, Bombay, in 1872-3, received 224 cwt. from Adeu, and shipped 138 cwt. to China. Some also finds its way overland to Brava (about 1° N. lat.) and Zanzibar. Aden exported 1439 ewt. of myrrh in 1875-6, about going to Bombay, and comiag direct to the United Kiugdom. The Bombay imports of hira-bol iu 1872-3 were :-16 cwt. from the Africaa coast, 188 from the Red Sea, and 290 from Aden ; the exports were 546 cwt., 493 being to the Uaited Kingdom. Shanghai imported 331/ piculs (of 1334 lb.) of myrrh from Hong Kong ia 1879. The approximate London market value of myrrh is 140-240s. a cwt. for good to fiae, and 60-190s. for ordinary to fair. It is used largely in medicine, though possessed of no important powers ; and in perfumery. In Iadia, bissa-bol is given to milch-cows and buffaloes to improve the milk-yield, and is used as a size and in incense.
Other Balsantoclendron products are described under Balm of Gilead and Bdellium, pp. 1636-7.
Nagdana or resin bearing these names is produced by au undeterinieed species of Burseraceous tree in India. It has a deep transparent red colour, and exudes very freely during the hot mouths (March-April), much finding its wny into the earth, and there concreting, to be dug up long after the tree has disappeared. Large masses arc sometimes found after a forest fire.
Olibanum (FR., Eneens; GER., Weihrauch).—The ig-norance concerning the origin of myrrh is equally prevalent in the case of olibanum. The results of the very attentive study which Capt. Hunter has long devoted to the subject may be summarized as follows. There appear to be five different kinds or grades, two of which bear dissimilar names in E. and W. Somali Land. The names given are :—(1) Mohr ad or mohr iltfod, (2) mohr madao, (3) mohr dctdbed or mohr as, (4) hardon, (5) yegaar. (1) The first is obtained in strips sometimes 1 ft. long, though the ad is never so long as the WM; the plants yielding it are found on the coast range, especially near water-courses. The Kew authorities consider the lafod plant to he probably a smooth-leaved form of Boswellia Cartera, while the ad plant is identified with B. Bhau-Dajiana, which play be itself an extreme form of B. Carterii. (2) The madao tree is comparatively rare, and its product is not highly esteemed, as it is sticky, and apt to discolour and depreciate other kinds when mixed with them. (3) Dadbe'd and as are reddish-coloured, and afforded by a tree which is " common near the sea," but quite unknown to botany. (4) The hardon kind is but little valued, and is only added to the others as a make weight ; the tree is alleged to be rare, growing isolated on hill-tops. Nothiug is known of it
scientifically. (5) The produce of the yegaar or gehar plant (Boswellia Frereana) is kept quite dis tinct from the four preceding kinds (which are indiscriminately mixed), and is known as mati or luban-mati (variously spelt); it is likened by Capt. Hunter to the product of a Socotran tree called amiru, which is likewise unknown.
The region occupied by the trees yielding olibanum or true frankincense is defined by Carter as extending over that portion of Somali Land contained between the Sablian mountains (in 17° 30' N. lat., and 55° 23' E. long.) and the town of Damkote, in the Bay of Al Kammar (in 52° 47' E. long.). S. Arabia is said no longer to produce any. The plants affect two distinct localities : the Nedjee, or high land, 2 days' journey from the sea ; and the Sahil, or plain on the coast. Capt. Kempthorne describes the trees on the coast of Adel as growing without soil, out of polished marble rocks, to which they are attached by a thick mass of the weathered rock, the growth of the trees appearing to be finer in proportion to the purity of the marble. The young trees are said to furnish the most valuable gum-resin, the older yielding a clear glutinous fluid resembling copal varnish. The fragrant gum-resin is distributed throughout the hark, leaves, and flowers of tbe plants. Its collection by the Medjourtine [Mijjertheyn] tribe of the Somalis is conducted as follows :—During the hot season, commencing about the end of February or beginning of March, the trees are visited in succession, and a deep incision is made in the stem of each, a narrow strip of bark being torn off for about 5 in. below the wound. After about a month, the old incision is deepened; and after the 3rd month, this is repeated. When the exudation is supposed to have attained the proper consist ence, parties of men and boys go out and scrape the large globules into baskets, making a separate collection of the inferior quality which has run down the stems. As first removed from the trees, the gum-resin is very soft, but it soon hardens. The collecting is repeated every fortnight during the season, the crop increasing as it advances, till mid-September, when the first rain closes the year's harvest, and spoils a portion of the product. The collection of the gum-resin in S. Ai abia, is (or rather was, for it is said to be now discontinued) performed by bands of Somalis from the opposite coast. Longitudinal incisions are made in the bark in May and December, when it appears much distended. The gum-resin issues as a milky fluid, and partly concretes on the stems beneath the incisions, partly falls on the ground. The Arabian article was always considered inferior to the African. The present supplies bearing Arabic names are said to be imported from Africa into the Arabian ports whence they are named.