Tenacious, adhering closely.
What is the character of Gum?
Gum is capable of being dissolved in water, and forming with it a viscid transparent fluid; but not in vinous spirits or oil; it burns in the fire to a black coal, without melting or catching fire; and does not dissolve in water at boiling heat. The name of gum has been inaccurately given to several species of gum-resins, which consist of resin and various other substances, flowing from many kinds of trees, and becoming hard by exposure to the air. These are soluble in dilute alcohol. Gum is originally a milky liquor, having a greater quantity of water mixed with its oily parts, and for that reason it dissolves in either water or oil. Another sort is not oily, and therefore dissolves in water only, as gum Arabic, the gum of the cherry-tree, &c.
Viscid, thick, ropy.
Vinous, having the qualities of wine.
Are the last-mentioned sorts properly called Gums?
No, though commonly called gums, they are only dried mucilages, which were nothing else than the mucilaginous lymph issuing from the vessels of the tree, in the same manner as it does from mallows, comfrey, and even from the cucumber; the vessels of which being cut across, yield a lymph which is plainly mucilaginous, and if well dried, at length becomes a kind of gum, or rather, a hardened mucilage.
Lymph, transparent fluid.
What is Gum Arabic?