141. STORAX is a fragrant, concrete, or solid balsam, that is obtained from a tree (Styrax officinalis) which grows in the Levant, and in some parts of Italy.
This tree grows to the height of twenty feet and upwards: it is much branched, and has broad, alternate, oval leaves, somewhat pointed, smooth above, and downy beneath. The flowers are large, white, in clusters on short footstalks, and terminate the branches.
The best storax is obtained from Asiatic Turkey, in small transparent masses, of pale red or yellowish colour, and generally abounding in whitish tears, resembling those of benzoin. The drug, however, which is commonly sold in the shops as storax, consists of large, light pieces, very impure, from the saw-dust with which it is mixed.
The mode of obtaining this balsam is similar to that employed for benzoin ([140]): incisions are made in the trees, and, on its oozing from the wound, it is scraped off, and collected together to be packed for sale. It was formerly customary to enclose it in reeds.
Storax is one of the most fragrant of the balsams, and is much used in some countries in perfumes, and for fumigation. It is also compounded in various ways with other substances, for medicinal use.
142. LOG-WOOD is a dark red wood, chiefly used in dyeing; and imported from Honduras, and some of the islands of the West Indies.
The log-wood tree (Hæmatoxylon campechianum, Fig. 43) is from sixteen to twenty-four feet high, and, both in the trunk and branches, is extremely crooked. The branches are spinous, and the leaves winged, with, in general, four or five pair of leaflets, which are somewhat heart-shaped. The flowers are if a reddish yellow colour, small, and numerous.
The district of Honduras in North America has long been celebrated for the production of log-wood, which grows wild chiefly in forests where the soil is moist, or near the banks of rivers and lakes. The cutting of it occupies a great number of hands, and is an unpleasant and very unhealthy pursuit.
In the year 1715 some seeds of the log-wood tree were introduced into the island of Jamaica; and this wood is now chiefly employed in that island as a fence against cattle. As an article of commercial export, it does not appear to answer so fully as could have been wished; yet, in morassy parts of the island, it grows in considerable luxuriance.
Few kinds of wood are of more solid texture than this. Hence arises its weight, which is so great that it will sink in water. Its predominant colour is red, tinged with orange and black; and its hardness such that it is capable of being polished, and is scarcely susceptible of decay. For exportation to Europe, it is cut into billets or logs, each about three feet in length.