Boswellia

Boswellia, a genus of Amyridacee, of which the species are still very imperfectly known, although the product of some of them—Olibanum (q.v.), generally believed to have been the Frankincense (q.v.) of the ancients—has long been of considerable commercial importance for the preparation of incense. The most important species appears to be B. carteri, but several other species or varieties have been described from the same region (Southern Arabia and Eastern Africa, near Cape Guardafui). B. thurifera or serrata of Coromandel yields a soft fragrant incense-resin, but which is not true olibanum; and the closely allied B. glabra also yields a comparatively coarse resin, sometimes used as incense, but also boiled with oil as a substitute for pitch. The Abyssinian B. papyrifera (so called from its laminated paper-yielding bast) also yields an olibanum, but it is not collected.