Botanical Origin—Myroxylon Toluifera H B K. (Toluifera Balsamum Miller, Myrospermum toluiferum A. Rich.),[786] an elegant and lofty evergreen tree with a straight stem, often as much as 40 to 60 feet from the ground to the first branch. It is a native of Venezuela, and New Granada,—probably also of Ecuador and Brazil.
History—The first published account of Balsam of Tolu, is that of the Spanish physician Monardes, who in his treatise on the productions of the West Indies, which in its complete form first appeared at Seville in 1574,[787] relates how the early explorers of South America observed that the Indians collected this drug by making incisions in the trunk of the tree. Below the incisions they affixed shells of a peculiar black wax to receive the balsam, which being collected in a district near Cartagena called Tolu, took its name from that place. He adds that it is much esteemed both by Indians and Spaniards, that the latter buy it at a high price, and that they have lately brought it to Spain, where it is considered to be as good as the famous Balsam of Mecca.
Francisco Hernandez, who lived in 1561-1577 in Mexico, stated[788] that the balsam of the province of Tolu was thought to be quite as useful as, if not superior to, “balsamum indicum,” i.e. peruvianum.
A specimen agreeing with this description was given to Clusius[789] in 1581 by Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth, but the drug was certainly not common till a much later period. In the price-list of drugs of the city of Frankfort of 1669, Balsamus tolutanum (sic) is expressly mentioned,[790] but there can be but little doubt that Balsamum Americanum resinosum[791] or siccum or durum as occurring in many other tariffs of the 17th century, printed in Germany, was also the balsam under notice;[792] in a similar list emanating from the city of Basle in 1646,[793] we noticed B. indicum album, B. peruvianum and B. siccum,—the last with the explanatory words, “trockner Balsam in der Kürbsen” (i.e. in gourds), meaning probably balsam of Tolu.
As to the tree, of which Monardes figured a broken pod, leaflets of it, marked 1758, exist in Sloane’s herbarium. Humboldt and Bonpland saw it in several places in New Granada during their travels (1799-1804), but succeeded only in gathering a few leaves. Among recent collectors, Warszewicz, Triana, Sutton Hayes, and Seemann were successful only in obtaining leaves. Weir in 1863 was more happy, for by causing a large tree of nearly 2 feet diameter to be felled, he procured good herbarium specimens including pods, but no flowers. Owing to this tree having been much wounded for balsam, its foliage and fruits were singularly small and stunted, and its branches overgrown with lichens.
That which botanists had failed to do, has been accomplished by an ornithologist, Mr. Anton Goering, who, travelling in Venezuela to collect birds and insects, made it a special object, at the urgent request of one of us (H.), to procure complete specimens of the Balsam of Tolu tree. By dint of much perseverance and by watching for the proper season, Mr. Goering obtained in December 1868 excellent flowering specimens and young fruits, and subsequently mature seeds from which plants have been raised in England, Ceylon and Java.
Extraction—The most authentic information we possess on this subject is derived from Mr. John Weir, plant collector to the Royal Horticultural Society of London, who when about to undertake a journey to New Granada in 1863, received instructions to visit the locality producing Balsam of Tolu. After encountering considerable difficulties, Mr. Weir succeeded in observing the manner of collecting the balsam in the forest near Plato, on the right bank of the Magdalena. Mr. Weir’s information[794] may be thus summarized:—
The balsam tree has an average height of 70 feet with a straight trunk, generally rising to a height of 40 feet before it branches. The balsam is collected by cutting in the bark two deep sloping notches, meeting at their lower ends in a sharp angle. Below this V-shaped cut, the bark and wood is a little hollowed out, and a calabash of the size and shape of a deep tea-cup is fixed. This arrangement is repeated, so that as many as twenty calabashes may be seen on various parts of the same trunk. When the lower part has been too much wounded to give space for any fresh incisions, a rude scaffold is sometimes erected, and a new series of notches made higher up. The balsam-gatherer goes from time to time round the trees with a pair of bags of hide, slung over the back of a donkey, and empties into them the contents of the calabashes. In these bags the balsam is sent down to the ports where it is transferred to the cylindrical tins in which it reaches Europe. The bleeding of the trees goes on for at least eight months of the year, causing them ultimately to become much exhausted, and thin in foliage.
In some districts, as we learn from another traveller, it is customary to let the balsam flow down the trunk into a receptacle at its base, formed of the large leaf of a species of Calathea.
From the observations of Mr. Weir, it appears that the balsam tree is plentifully scattered throughout the Montaña around Plato and other small ports on the right bank of the Magdalena. He states that he saw at least 1,500 lb. of the drug on its way for exportation. From another source, we know that it is largely collected in the valley of the Sinu, and in the forests lying between that river and Cauca. None is collected in Venezuela.