The Benjamin Tree.
Arbor benzionifera.
A BEAUTIFUL tree frequent in the East, and there affording the fine fragrant resin of its name: it is also of the growth of America, and thrives there, but it yields no resin. It is a moderaccly tall tree; the bark is smooth and brown; the leaves are broad, oblong, and not unlike those of the lemon-tree. The flowers are whitish, and very inconsiderable. The fruit is as big as a nutmeg, and consists of a fleshy substance on the outside, and a kernel inclosed in a thin and brittle shell within. The tree is properly of the bay tree kind.
They cut the branches of the benjamin trees, and the juice which flows out hardens by degrees into that reddish and white fragrant resin we see. It is an excellent medicine in disorders of the breast and lungs: and a tincture of it made with spirit of wine makes water milky, and this mixture is called virgins'-milk; it is good to cleanse the skin.
