THE CAMPHOR-TREE OF SUMATRA. 39 
as anime-resin. The Javanese species of Dipterocarpus are all resinous, 
and the resin is said to be used as copaiva-balsam. 
The Camphor-tree is one of the loftiest trees of the Indian Ar- 
chipelago. In its dimensions it surpasses even the Rasamala-tree 
(Altingia excelsa) of Java. It is the giant among the trees of the East 
Indies. Its trunk rises vertically, and divides into branches only at 
the top, forming a somewhat convex crown. A person looking over 
the tops of the trees from an elevated place, for instance, from the 
mountains behind Loemoet, at a height of from three to four hundred 
feet, can without difficulty count the full-grown Camphor-trees that are 
scattered in the forest; for, while the Anonacee, Acacias, Fagreæ, and 
Figs, which compose the chief mass of trees in those forests, are eighty 
to a hundred feet high, the Camphor-tree, with its gigantic crown, is 
seen rising fifty or even a hundred feet above them, as the steeples of 
churches appear above the roofs of the houses in a town. The follow- 
ing are its dimensions, compared with those of the Rasamala (igas 
dambar Altinghiana) :— 
Thickness of the trunk. Taak of i Di : ier ek 
Beneath. Above. the trunk. the crown. 
Camphor-tree . | 7-10 ft. 5-8 ft. 1100—130 ft.| -50-70 ft. | 
Rasamala . . 5-7 8-5 70-90 40-50 
Near the ground the Camphor-tree gives out radiating extensions of 
the trunk and root, such as several travellers have represented in their 
descriptions. At the lower part of the tree the bark is rugged, with 
fissures, and often covered with a resinous and glittering, sometimes 
yellowish substance, which is transparent, and consists either of cam- 
_ phor or of camphor and its peculiar resin. Higher up, the bark is of a 
dark grey colour, here and there covered with lichens, but not with 
Lianes, like so many other trees. 
The position of the leaves is alternate, as shown in the drawing of - 
Houttuyn. Colebrooke describes a branch without fruits, with opposite — 
leaves. Has Dryobalanops Camphora sometimes a position of leaves 
such as Colebrooke describes? We can scarcely doubt the accuracy of 
his descriptions—they have too much the appearance of truth about — — 
them; and all that he has communicated of the tree and of the sub- — 
