Flora Medica

HUMIRIACE^.Nat. syst.ed. 2. p. 104.HUMIRIUM.Calyx 5-cleft. Petals 5. Fertile stamens 20 ; filaments monadelphousat the base ; anthers with an appendage at the apex,and distant cells. Sterile stamens about half the number, surroundingthe base of the ovary in the form of hypogynous scales.Stigma with 5 rays. Drupe with an 8-celled stone of; whichthe cells are 1 -seeded, 4 cells being placed over the other 4.311. H. floribundum Mart, gen, and sp. pi.ii. 145. t. 199.Various parts of Brazil.A tree 20 30 feet high. Branches slightly winged, purplish brown.Leaves alternate, obovate or oblong, obtuse, obscurely emarginated,narrowing into a very short petiole. Cymes axillary, on long stalkslittle shorter than the leaves. Flowers small. Calyx with roundedlobes. Petals white, erert, lanceolate, obtuse. Anthers fringed, witha tongue-shaped appendage much longer than the lobes. Hypogynousscales bifid, adhering into a toothed cup. Drupe 4-5 lines long,purple, with a soft sweet eatable flesh. This plant, the Umm of thepeople of Para, yields from its trunk when wounded a valuable, fragrant,limpid, pale yellow balsam called Balsam of Umiri, possessing the samemedicinal qualities as Balsam of Copaiva, "immo nobiliorem et balsamoperuviano cemulum." Martitis.312. H. balsamiferum Aubl. 565. t. 225. Myrodendron amplexicauleSchreb. gen. No. 901. A Guiana plant, with ovateor ovate-oblong acute sessile half-amplexicaul leaves, yields asimilar balsam, which Aublet compares to that of Peru ; it is theHoumiri or Touri of the Caribs.159