Definition: A gum resin, usually of a yellowish brown or amber color, of
an aromatic odor, and a bitter, slightly pungent taste. It is valued
for its odor and for its medicinal properties. It exudes from the bark
of a shrub of Abyssinia and Arabia, the Balsamodendron Myrrha. The
myrrh of the Bible is supposed to have been partly the gum above named,
and partly the exudation of species of Cistus, or rockrose.
