"It must be confessed," remarks Hanbury (Pharmacographia, p. 125), "that the botany of the Myrrh trees is still encompassed with uncertainty." It was, therefore, with peculiar interest that a complete set of the plants yielding the several kinds of Myrrh known in eastern commerce were received at Kew from Mr. W. Wykeham Perry, who obtained them from Capt. Hunter at Aden.

These plants were in a living but leafless state when they reached Kew. Being mostly destitute of roots, which could not be readily extricated from the stoney soil in which they originally grew, only few of them are likely to survive, and they have, therefore, not yielded all the information which they would undoubtedly have afforded had they grown and flowered. The following notes will, however, show that they have added something to our knowledge.