139 



Five other distillations at intervals of some days with the air- 

 dried leaves gave the following yields : — 



No. 1. — 2-310 per cent, camphor and -114 per cent, oil, ecpial to 1-02 per cent. 



on fresh leaf. 

 No. 2. — 2-149 per cent, caniplior and oil, equal to -98 per cent, on fresh leaf. 

 No. 3. — 2-425 per cent, camphor and traces of oil, equal to 1 -C'5 per cent, on 



fresh leaf. 

 No. 4. — 2-3 > per cent, camphor and traces of oil, eijual to 1-01 per cent, on 



fresh leaf. 

 No. 5 — 2-08 I per cent, canqilior and traces of oil, equal to -90 per cent, on 



fresh leaf. 



From these figures it will be seen that air-drying the leaf before 

 distillation does not cause any appreciable loss of camphor, 

 though a certain amount of oil disappears, either by volatilization 

 or oxidation. The camphor obtained from the air-dried leaf also 

 had a somewhat purer smell than that from the fresh leaf, though 

 this latter was easily rendered pure by re-distillation with steam. 



Three distillations were made of the branches and stem of the 

 camphor tree, but no appreciable quantity of camphor was ob- 

 tained from either, nor did the bark of the stem appear to contain 

 more than traces. The roots, however, contained an oil, 5lb. of 

 roots yielding i"22 per cent. This oil was located mainly in the 

 bark and in a thin layer of wood beneath it. It had only a slight 

 smell of camphor, and more resembled a mixture of aniseed and 

 peppermint. 



On the 7th August, 1901, 5lb. of young flush was received from 

 Hakgala in a slightly heated condition. It was at once put into a 

 copper vessel with fifteen pints of water, and a glass dome luted 

 on, which was connected with a glass condenser. The water was 

 heated slowly from below, and a thermometer placed, so as to 

 register the temperature of the vapour 2 inches above the water 

 and camphor leaves. 



At 50° C. (122° F.) crystals of camphor condensed on the glass 

 dome, which at 90° C. (194° F.) were carried back into the water 

 by the condensed steam. At 1 00 C. the steam and camphor 

 vapour was passing rapidly into the glass condenser, while the 

 leaves were covered with oily drops of camphor and oil. Distil- 

 lation at 100° C. was continued for two hours, when 4^ litres 

 (7"93 pints) of water containing camphor and oil had collected in 

 the condenser. This was then passed through a wet paper filter 

 to separate the camphor and oil from the water, 24'53 grams of 

 the mixture being obtained, equal to I "10 per cent. The oil was 

 separated from the camphor as much as possible, the yield of 

 each on the original flush being 755 per cent, pure camphor and 

 ■345 per cent, camphor oil. Another distillation was made in the 

 same way of lolb. of coppice shoots one year old from a tree that 

 had been cut down. The yield of camphor from this was very 

 small, only "192 per cent, and shows that the first year's growth 

 from a tree cut down to the ground is practically valueless, but it 

 is probable that young flush from such coppiced trees would in- 

 crease in the camphor contents during the next and succeeding 

 years. 



Further distillations were also made of the entire prunings 



