| = specimens in sifu of 
129 
Kew GARDEN Museum; or, an Account of the Origin and some of the 
Contents of the Museum or Economic Borany attached to the 
Rovan GARDENS or Kew; dy the Director, Sır W. J. HOOKER, 
K.H., F.R., A., and L.S. 
(Continued from p. 114.) 
Ord. DipTEROCARPES. MALAY-CAMPHOR FAMILY. 
A Family of stately forest-trees, chiefly inhabiting the Indian Archi- 
pelago, yielding a peculiar resin (generally called Dammar), of which 
the most remarkable is the article we shall first notice. 
Borneo or Sumatran Camphor. n its raw or natural state, this is 
found deposited in erystals in the decayed and hollow interior of the 
trunks of Dryobalanops Camphora. This was spoken of by the cele- 
brated traveller Marco Palo, before the year 1299, as ** Canfara Fan- 
suri,” or Camphor of the kingdom of Fansur, in Sumatra; and 
Camoens, 272 years later (viz. in 1571), sings, as related at p. 200 of 
the fourth volume of this Journal, 
** Borneo here expands her ample breast, 
By Nature's hands in woods of Camphire drest : 
The precious liquid weeping from the trees 
Glows warm with health, the balsam of disease.” 
Lusian, transl. by Mickle. 
Our readers will find a full history of the tree (for, long as it has 
been known to travellers, it is only of late years that its botanical 
character, and even its true properties, have been described) in this 
Journal, vol. iv. p. 33, by Dr. De Vriese ; at p. 200 by ourselves, from 
information communicated from Borneo by Mr. Motley, with a figure 
of the plant and crystals i» situ, at Tabs. VII. and VIII.; and we 
shall here merely observe that the camphor is, and always has been, a 
very costly article, often as high as thirty-five dollars the catty. It is 
principally used for embalming the dead. Our Museum ries noble 
Kassur Barus, as it is called in Borneo, the crystallized Conil di 
turally secreted in the hollow trunk of Dryobalanops Camphora, Colebr. x 
Mimak Kassur, or Camphor-oil of the same. 
Leaves and unripe fruit of Dryobalanops Camphora, Colebr., in ERR. = 
White resin of the same. eg 
VOL. VII. > > f 
