CAMPHORA OFFICINARUM. 29 
adnate, two to four-celled ; the cells bursting by a longitudinal persistent valve, from the base to the apex; the outer 
snthers yalved inwards, the inner valved outwards (or both valved inwards). Glands usually present at the base of 
the inner filaments. Ovary single, superior, with one or two single pendulous ovules. Style simple. Stigmas obtuse. 
Fruit baccate, or drupaceous, naked or covered. Seed without albumen. Embryo inverted. Cotyledons large, plano- 
convex, peltate near the base. Radicle very short, included, superior ; plumule conspicuous, two-leaved. (R. Brown. 
Pereira.) Trees of large size, with alternate or stipulous leaves, rarely opposite ; entire or lobed. Inflorescence pani- 
- edionics constitution of this tribe of plants depends upon the presence of volatile oil, which is proved to 
become concrete, and afford either true camphor, or a species of stearoptine resembling it. In the bark of some of 
the species, tannin is found; hence its astringency. In the berries of many, the volatile oil is commingled with fixed. 
CAMPHORA OFFICINARUM. 
NEES. 
THE CAMPHOR TREE. 
Cinnamomum Campuora.—WNees and Ebermayer. 
Laurus CaMPHoRIFERA.—Kempfer. 
Laurus Campuora.—Linneus. 
Sex. Syst.—Enneandria, Monogynia. 
Gen. Cuar.—F lowers hermaphrodite, panicled, naked. Calyz six cleft, papery, with a deciduous limb. Fertzle 
stamens nine, in three rows; the inner with two-stalked compressed glands at the base. Amthers four-celled; the 
outer turned inwards, the inner outwards. Three sterile stamens shaped like the first, placed in a whorl alternating 
with the stamens of the second row; three others stalked with an ovate glandular head. F'ruit placed on the obconical 
base of the calyx. Leaves triple nerved, glandular in the axils of the principal veins. Leaf-buds scaly. (Lindley.) 
Specir. Cuar.—A small tree with smooth bark and branches. Branches lax, when young, yellowish. Leaves 
evergreen, oval, acuminate, attenuate at base, bright green and shining above, and paler beneath, coriaceous, triple- 
nerved, with a sunken gland at the axil of the principal veins, projecting at the upper side and opening by an oval 
pore beneath. Petioles from an inch to one and a half inches long, slender. and smooth. Panicles axillary and termi- 
nal, corymbose and naked. Flowers small, yellowish-white, smooth on the outside. Berry round, blackish-red, size 
of a black currant. Seed solitary. , 
This plant is a native of China and J apan, but is cultivated in warm climates, and sometimes thrives well in con- 
Servatories. All parts of it abound in camphor. It has been introduced into Java. 
It appears that there are two modes of obtaining the camphor. One by boiling the chips of the wood, bark, root, 
—— : zh vessel with water, and catching the camphor in an earthen head containing straw, which is inverted 
aie € camphor sublimin , 18 caught by the straw. The other, by boiling the chips in water, until the cam- 
phor will concrete on the stirrer, then straining out the camphor and subliming it in copper vessels. 
_The Dutch or Japan camphor is of a pink colour, in large grains ; it is purer than Chinese, which is in grayish 
stains, and mixed with impurities. eer ae 
ars aaah = render it purer, is refined ; this formerly was practised in glass vessels called Bombolos, but the 
ieaghor ‘s 18 Aang iron vessels similar to ovens, placed in range, and having move a rforated covers. Refined 
ks ona = Cakes, diaphanous, tough, and composed of crystalline granules. It I peculiar camphoraceous 
C warm, persistent taste. ; es 
—— Pees Is a Stearoptine, having for its base an eleoptine. This latter is isomeric, with spirits of turpentine; 
© composition. Eloptine (C'°H*)+0, forming Stearoptine or Camphor. 
B oe 3 Megs 
und a oxygenation it becomes camphoric acid. The relation between this product and volatile oil is well 
VOL, II, 
8 
