. A history of the vegetable kingdom; embracing the physiology of plants, with their uses to man and the lower animals, and their application in the arts, manufactures, and domestic economy. Illus. by several hundred figures. Botany; Botany, Economic; 1855. BENZOIN, OR BENJAMIN TKEE. 659 many uses of it besides giving it to their liorses as a medicine. A patent has been recently tal^en out In Lon- don, for applying the mucilage extracted from the seed of the carob tree, commonly called St John's bread. This is of so strong a gummy consistency, that one pound of this is said to produce an equal
. A history of the vegetable kingdom; embracing the physiology of plants, with their uses to man and the lower animals, and their application in the arts, manufactures, and domestic economy. Illus. by several hundred figures. Botany; Botany, Economic; 1855. BENZOIN, OR BENJAMIN TKEE. 659 many uses of it besides giving it to their liorses as a medicine. A patent has been recently tal^en out In Lon- don, for applying the mucilage extracted from the seed of the carob tree, commonly called St John's bread. This is of so strong a gummy consistency, that one pound of this is said to produce an equal effect with eight pounds of gum Senegal, and nine or ten pounds of gum Arabic. The seeds, after being divested of their skins by the agency of sulphuric acid, are dried, and then ground in a mill, and the powder thus obtained is the mucilaginous matter. Benzoin, or Benjamin Trek (styrax benzoin). Natural family ebenacece; decandria, of Linnseus. This tree is a native of Sumatra. It is of quick growth, and attains a considerable height. The stem sends off many strong, round branches, which are covered with a whitish, downy bark. The leaves are oblong, entire, tapering to a point, smooth on the upper surface, and downy on the under; and they stand alter- nately upon short footstalks. The flowers are produced in bunches, and usually hang all on the same side, upon short, slender pedicles. The calyx is short, bell-shaped, and downy. The corolla is monopetalous, downy, and of a grayish colour. The fruit is a pulpy pericarp, containing one or two oval compressed nuts. The tree begins to afiiard benzoin in the sixth year of its age, or when the trunk has acquired a diameter of seven or eight inches. The bark is then cut through longitudinally, or somewhat obliquely at the origin of the principal lower branches, from which the drug exudes in a liquid state; and by exposure to the sun and air, soon concretes, when it is scraped off from the bai'k with a knife or chissel. Th
Size: 1344px × 1859px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectbo, booksubjectbotany
