172 APPHNDIS:. 



seventeentli anJ its nineteenth year, the drynig-Trp pi'oc^s com- 

 mencing at tlie lower part. The natives collect three different 

 qualities of gnm, classed according to the lightness of their colour 

 and their freedom from bark and other impurities. A fnll-grown 

 benzoin-tree yields from 1 to 3 catties C = ]| to 4 lbs.) every season^ 



■audits cnltivation is a source of considerable affluence to its pro- 

 prietor. In the Moesi Ilir District several proprietors own from 500 to 

 7,000 benzoin-trees each. During the recent years of low prices, 

 however, the cultivation has been carried on with great want of care, 

 and in some parts a garden of 2,000 trees now yields hardly as much 

 gum as a garden of 500 trees did when, some year^ ago, the collec- 

 tion of gum was carefully attended to. Stilly the benzoin -producing 

 villages of Sumatra ai'e among the most prosperous iu the whole 

 island. If, througli carelessness, as sometimes happens, the collection 

 of the gum from some trees is forgotten during the season, the gum, 

 after some months, is found to have exuded in great lumps, which 



have become quite hard, and are covered with a dirty layer of 

 black. These pieces are cut from the trees with an axe, and roughly 

 rinsed in the nearest creeks Afterwards hot water is poured over 

 this gi^m, which softens it and rendei-s it fit for packing. Palembang 

 is the trade centre for the district, and the Chinese merchants there 

 are the principal, if not the only, buyers. They systematically adul- 

 terate the benzoin by the addition of inferior gum-resins, wood, or 

 earth, and it is said that for many years not a single parcel of pure 

 benzoin has been exported from Palembang, The average benzoin 

 e^sports from Palembang are about 700 tons per annum. Mr. Vonck 

 mentions that the gum esiported from Padang on the west coast of 

 Sumatra is more valuable than that brought into commerce from 

 Palembang. This has sometimes been ascribed to its greater rich- 

 ness in cinnamic acid, but Mr. Vonck believes it to be due rather to 

 the greater care which is bestowed upon its '^collection. As the 

 Penan g and Palembang gums are the least valuable on the London 

 market, and their prices correspond most neatly to the figures given 

 by Mr, Vonck as the local value of the gum, equalling from about 

 5.^. to 405. per cwt. ; this may be taken as additional evidence in 

 favour of the view that the Palembang and Penang varieties are 

 identical, and that the gum known in London as " Sumatra " is tlie pro- 

 duct of the western districts of Sumatra, and may possibly be obtained 

 from a different tree. {Chemht and Druggist, Sept. 20, 189L) 



