Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LAD'A-NUM, n. [said to be Arabic.]

The resinous juice which exudes from the Cistus ladaniferus, a shrub which grows in Spain and Portugal, or from Cistus Creticus, which grows in Crete, Syria, &c. It is collected with a kind of rake, with leather thongs attached to it, with which the shrubs are brushed. The best sort is in dark-colored black masses, of the consistence of a soft plaster. The other sort is in long rolls coiled up, harder than the former, and of a paler color. It is chiefly used in external applications. – Encyc. Parr.