An introduction to physiological and systematical botany / by James Edward Smith.
- James Edward Smith
- Date:
- 1814
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An introduction to physiological and systematical botany / by James Edward Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![SECRETED FLUIDS- 6J Gum or mucilage, a viscid substance of little flavour or smell, soluble in water, is very general. When su- perabundant it exudes from many trees in the form of large drops or lumps, as in Plum, Cherry, and Peach- trees, and different species of Mimosa or Sensitive plants, one of which yields the Gum Arabic, others the Gum Senegal, &c.(6) Resin is a substance soluble in spirits, and much more various in different plants than the preceding, as the Turpentine of the Fir and Juniper, the Red Gum of New South Wales, produced by one or more species of Eucalyptus, Bot. of N. Boll. t. 13, and the fragrant Yellow Gum of the same country, see White's Voyage, 235, which exudes spontaneously from the Xanthorrhoea Hasttle. Most vegetable exudations partake of a nature between these two, being partly soluble in water, partly in spirits, and are therefore called Gum-resins. The milky juice of the Fig, Spurge, &c, which Dr. Darwin has shown, and which every body may see, to be quite distinct from the sap, is, like animal milk, an emulsion, or combination of a watery fluid with oil or resin. Ac- cordingly, when suffered to evaporate in the air, such fluids become resins or gum-resins, as the Gum Eu- phorbium. In the Celandine, Chelidonium majus, Engl. (6) [Mucilage is found in great quantities in the root of Al- thea officinalis, or Marsh Mallow, in the inner bark of Slippery Elm (Ulmusfulva), in the pith of Sassafras, in the leaves of different Mallows, Violets, 8cc. on the seeds of Quinces and Flax.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21155082_0075.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
