APPENDIX, • 171 



propagation. On low^ybg, rich, and clayey soil the tree grows up 

 more rapidly, hixt its gum is then of such a poor quality that the 

 cultivation yields Httle or no profit. On such a soil there is also 

 danger of floods, which are fatal to the tree. Marshy or stony soil 

 is altogether unsulted to the culture. The tree is propagated from 

 the seed, which is of a reddish colour, almost round in shape, and of 

 the size of a marble. It is enclosed in a green shell. "WTien the 

 would-be j)lanter has gathered a sufficient quantity of the seeds, which 

 are a favourite food of wild beasts of the forest, he plants them out 

 in vows in the paddy-field, Just before the paddy crop is put in the 

 ground. Sometimes the young benzoin -shoots which have grown up 

 around the parent stem are dug out and transplanted amon*^ the 

 paddy. The object of the plantation on the paddy-field is to secure 

 the necessary shade for the seedlings^ which would be easily killed 

 by the fierce sunlight. Two seeds are usually planted in one hole • 

 if botli come up, the weaker plant is generally destroyed. If the 

 culture takes place by means of young shoots from the parent tree 

 these shoots, before planting, are stripped of their leaves, and placed 

 in water in bunches of about twenty -five, being kept afloat between 

 two bamboo sticks. When fresh leaves have grown upon the shoots 

 they are planted out in an oblique hole, which is left open for a time. 

 The new benzoin -tree grows from the i-oots of the young shoot, after 

 which the stem of the latter perishes. The natives appear to take 

 no trouble whatever in weeding their benzoin plantations; and many 

 of the plants are therefore suffocated by creepers and weeds. Only 

 after a lapse of seven years the native retm^ns to the sj)ot where he 

 planted his seeds or shoots for the purpose of gathering his first 

 crop of juice. By that time the shoot has groAvn into a fine tree, 

 branching and bearing leaves at the top only, and from 25 to 40 feet 

 in height. When once the tapping of the tree has commenced^ its 

 growth is almost arrested^ and the colour of its bark gradually 

 clianges from pale grey to brown. If the tree is left to grow wild, 

 its height trebles or quadruples, some of the specimens in the virgin 

 forest being over 250 feet high. The incisions made in the tree are 



^gul 



exude 



a systematic and invariable plan* A yellowii 

 from the incisions a week after they are made, but not until six 

 weeks or two months after its appearance has it hardened suflficiently 

 to admit of being collected. The tree becomes exhausted between its 



