The Dragon's Blood Tree.
Sanguis draconis arbor.
A VERY beautiful tree, native of the Canaries, and some other places. It is of the palm kind, and one of the handsomest of them, The trunk is naked all the way to the top, and there stand on its summit a great quantity of leaves, long, narrow, and pointed at the ends; of a bluish green colour, and not unlike the leaves of our flags. The fruit is round, and is of the bigness of a walnut with the green rind upon it.
The dragon's blood is a red friable resin. Our druggists keep it: the best is in small lumps; there is an inferior kind in cakes or masses. It is procured by cutting the trunk of this tree in the great heats. There are also two other kinds of palm, that afford the same resin, It is a very excellent astringent. It is useful in purgings and in the overflowing of the menses, in spitting of blood, and all other occasions of that kind. It may be given in powder.
