Full Definition
بَلَسَانٌ
[The balsam-tree; or the species that produces the balsam of Mekkeh; i. e., the amyris opobalsamum;] a certain kind of tree, or shrub, resembling the
حِنَّآء, having many leaves, inclining to white, in odour resembling the
سَذَاب [or rue], the berry of which has an unguent, which is hot, and its unguent is in great request: its unguent [opobalsamum] is more potent than its berry [carpobalsamum], and its berry is more so than its wood [xylobalsamum] : the best of its wood is the smooth, tawny-coloured, pungent and sweet in odour: it is hot and dry in the second degree; and its berry is a little hotter than it: its wood opens stoppages of the nose, and is good for the sciatica and vertigo and headache, and clears cloudiness of the eye, and is good for asthma and oppression of the breath, and for flaccidity of the womb, used by fumigation; it is also beneficial in cases of barrenness, and counteracts poisons and the bite of vipers: it is said in the K and in the Minháj, and by most of the physicians and those who treat of drugs, that it grows only at 'Eyn-Shems, in the neighbourhood of El-Káhireh, the place called ElMatareeyeh; but MF observes that this is strange, as it is well known that it is mostly found in the district of El-Hijáz, between the Harameyn and El-Yembo' , whence it is conveyed to all countries: the truth, however, is, that it ceased to grow at ' Eyn-Shems in the latter part of the eighth century [of the Flight], and it was endeavoured [successfully] to be made to grow in El-Hijáz. [See also De Sacy's “ Abd-allatif, ” p. 89.]
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