APPENDIX. ]69 



STYRACEiE. 



The Varieties of Benzoin. 



m 



The source of the different varieties of gum benzoia known to com- 

 mercej and many points regarding the mode of preparation of the 

 drug, are still, to a large extent, matters of conjecture. Some 

 authorities, including Dr. Treub, the well-known director of the 

 Buitenzorg botanical gardens^ are of opinion that Penangand Palem- 

 bang benzoin are yielded by the same tree, and that the difference in 

 the ap])earance and in the yield of cinnamic acid of the two kinds is 

 caused by differences in their mode of preparation. Mr. Holmes 

 does not agree with this view, but inclines to the belief that the 

 Sumatra and Palembang varieties are both produced by the same 

 tree — styras benzoin — and that the Penang gum is sui ffeneris, prob- 

 ably the produce of the Styrax suhdenticulata, Miq., which occurs 

 in Western Sumatra. Hanbury offers no definite opinion on the 

 subject, nor does Fliickiger, in his last edition, just published, of the 

 Pharmacog)iosie» Contributions to the elucidation of a subject upou 

 which so much divergence of view exists among authorities are 

 always welcome, and they become doubly valuable when they are 

 the result of careful local examination. In London the di*uggists 

 distinguish four varieties of benzoin, viz, — Siam, the costHest variety ; 

 Sumatra, which comes next in value ; Penang, which is a comparative- 

 ly recent addition to our Materia Medica, and Palembang, the kind 

 mostly used by benzoic -acid manufacturers. Leaving Siam gum, 

 which is obtained from the mainland of Asia, out of account alto- 

 gether, it is evident that the nomenclature of the remaining three 

 varieties is not only altogether fanciful, but actually calculated to 

 mislead. In Penang itself no benzoin is produced, and the gum 

 which is imported by way of that great emporium of the trade of the 

 Dutch East Indies is almost entirely, if not wholly, collected in the 

 island of Sumatra. Palembang gum also is the produce of the same 

 island, Palembang being simply the chief settlement of the residency 

 of the same name, in the south-eastern part of the island of Sumatra, 

 where a great part of the benzoin of commerce is brought to market, 

 and whence it is sent on to Singapore or Penang on its way to Europe. 

 Sumatra, though it has been nominally under Dutch rule for ov^er 

 two centuries, still contains some of the least-known spots on earth, 

 and the detaOed account of the cultivation and collection of benzoin 



