The Liquid Storax Tree.
Styrax liquida arbor.
A large tree, so much we hear of it, is native of the East Indies, but very ill described to us. We are told the leaves are large, and the flowers fragrant, but of what form they are nobody has told us, or what is the fruit. All that we use is a liquid resin of a very peculiar kind, which we are told is obtained by boiling the bark, and the shoots of this tree in water; the resin swims at the top, and they scum it off and strain it, but it will not all pass through. It is from hence that we see two kinds; the one finer, thinner, and purer, the other thicker and coarser; this last kind is more common than the better sort, and it is generally used.
It is a balsam of the nature of the turpentines; and is good against the whites, and the weaknesses that follow venereal disorders. Some have used it also in diseases of the lungs, but it has never been in great repute on those occasions. It is sometimes put into ointments intended for old ulcers; and it is said to be used this way with great success.
