in botany: A genus of the monogynous order, belonging to the decandra class of plants. The calyx is campanulated; the superior petal larger than the rest; the germ is longer than the corolla; the legumen monoporous. There is but one species, the periflora, a native of Peru and the warmer parts of America. It is this shrub that yields the balsam of Peru, which is said to be extracted from it by coction in water. This balsam, as brought to us, is nearly of the consistence of thin honey, of a reddish brown colour, inclining to black, an agreeable aromatic smell, and a very hot biting taste. Distilled with water, it yields a small quantity of a fragrant essential oil of a reddish colour, and in a strong fire, without addition, a yellowish red oil. Balsam of Peru is a very warm aromatic medicine, considerably hotter and more acrid than copaiva. Its principal effects are to warm the habit, to strengthen the nervous system, and attenuate viscid humours. Hence its use in some kinds of asthmas, gonorrhoeas, dysenteries, suppressions of the uterine discharges, and other disorders proceeding from a debility of the solids or a sluggishness and inactivity of the juices. It is also employed externally, for cleansing and healing wounds and ulcers, and sometimes against palsies and rheumatic pains.—There is another sort of balsam of Peru of a white colour, Myrrh colour, and considerably more fragrant than the former. This is very rarely brought to us. It is said to be the produce of the same plant which yields the common or black balsam, and to exude from incisions made in the trunk, while the former is obtained by boiling. There is also a third kind, commonly called the red or dry. This is supposed to obtain a different state from the white, merely in consequence of the treatment to which it is subjected after it is got from the tree. It is almost as fragrant as the balsam of Gilead, held in so high esteem among the eastern nations. It is very rarely in use in Britain, and almost never to be met with in our shops.