hog gum
[f. hog n.1 + gum n.]
A kind of gum or resin obtained from various trees in the West Indies, etc. Hence hog-gum tree.
Among the trees said to yield the gum are Moronobea coccinea, Rhus Metopium, and Clusia flava of Jamaica, Hedwigia balsamifera of San Domingo, and, according to some, Symphonia globulifera of Guyana.
| 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 177 The Hog-gum tree. This tree is well known for its medicinal gum, to which the very hogs are said to have recourse when wounded in the woods. 1858 Hogg Veg. Kingd. 149 Clusia flava, the Yellow Balsam Tree, is a native of Jamaica..This too yields a resinous juice, which is sometimes used among the negroes as a vulnerary, and was considered to be the Hog Gum. Ibid. 241 R[hus] metopium yields a great quantity of gummy resin..and this it is which is considered by some the Doctor's Gum, or Hog gum of Jamaica. Ibid. 254 Hedwigia balsamifera is found in the woods and mountains of St. Domingo, and there called Bois de cochon or Wild Boar's Tree, because, it is said, these animals, when wounded, strip off the bark and heal their wounds by rubbing against the gum which exudes from it, and hence it may be regarded as another source of the Hog Gum. 1866 Treas. Bot., Moronobea coccinea, the Hog Gum tree, is a lofty straight-stemmed tree. |