Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

34 FAMILY HERBAL.
the tree makes a very singular appearance. The
fruit is a pod, long, but slender, and containing two
seeds : these are what we call the ben-nuts. They
are of an oblong figure, and irregularly rigid ; the
shell is hard, but the kernel fat, soft, and oily, and
of a bitter taste.
The kernel operates by vomit and stool violently,
and is seldom used. It affords an oil which has neither
smell nor taste, and which will keep a long time
without growing rancid.
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 brit-
tle 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 de-
grees 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.
Wood Betony. Butonica sylveslris.
A COMMON wild herb, but of very great vir-