106 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Dipterocarpee. 
to the neighbourhood of the Jumna, forming vast forests, frequently unmixed with any 
other tree, but generally confined in the most northern parts within the first range of 
hills. The trees of this family are conspicuous for their size, beauty, and for the 
excellent timber which most of them afford—Shorea robusta or Sal affording the best 
and most extensively-used timber in India; the goodness of which must depend in a 
great measure on the resin, called ral in the northern, and dhoona in the southern 
provinces, which it contains, and for which so many of the family are conspicuous. 
Dryobalanops Camphora, the Shorea Camphorifera of Dr. Roxburgh, is, perhaps, the 
most remarkable species of the order, as it affords both the camphor and camphor-oil 
of Borneo and Sumatra. Mr. Prince, of Tappanooly, on the western coast of the latter 
island, writes that this tree grows spontaneously in the forests, and is to be found in 
abundance from the back of Ayers Bongry as far north as Bacongan, a distance of 
twenty-five miles. It is one of the largest trees that grows on that coast, several being 
six or seven, others only two and a-half feet in diameter. The same tree which yields 
the oil, would have produced camphor, if unmolested; the former being supposed to be 
the first stage of the latter’s forming, and is consequently found in younger trees (Rozb. 
Fl. Ind.*2. p: 616.) This camphor is highly valued by the Chinese, as we learn from 
the writings of Sir G. Staunton and Dr. Abel. By Mr. C. Groves I was informed that 
they actually give a higher price for it in its coarse state, than they afterwards sell it for 
when purified. This is confirmed by what Sir G. Staunton relates, that ‘‘ owing 
to the Borneo camphor being so pure and strong, as readily to communicate its odour 
and virtues to other inspissated oils, which thus pass for real camphor; and this 
adulterated drug is sold by Chinese artists, at a vastly lower price than they themselves 
give for the genuine substance from Borneo.” (Staunton. Trav. vol. ili. p. 289.) This 
can be accounted for, only by supposing that they dilute it, when purifying, by subliming 
it with their own camphor, obtained by the sublimation of the substance procured 
from the maceration and decoction of the branches of Laurus Camphora; of this 
the timber is too valuable to allow of its being cut up for the much purer and 
stronger camphor, which it contains in a solid state. | 
As many of the Dipterocarpee might, without doubt, be extensively introduced 
either as timber-trees, or for the products which they yield, into the southern 
provinces of India, I annex the remarks which Mr. Colebrooke has subjoined to 
his paper on Dryobalanops Camphora. By this able summing up of details, appa- 
rently taken from Dr. Roxburgh’s manuscripts, it will be seen that this philosophical 
botanist early appreciated the advantages of studying the properties of all the plants of 
a natural order, in conjunction with their structure. 
“Shorea robusta and Tumbugaia,” Mr.Colebrooke remarks, ‘‘and aaa other species 
of the genus, yield in great abundance the resin, called by the Hindoostanees dhoona, 
and by the English, in India, dammer, which is very generally used as a gps 8] 
pitch for marine purposes. The natives of India also employ it in their temples, in the 
manner of incense. Dipterocarpus costatus, turbinatus, incanus, alatus, and probably 
other 
