APPENDIX. 169 
STYRACEZE. 
The Varieties of Benzoin. 
The source of the different varieties of gum benzoin known to com- 
merce, 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 Penang and Palem- 
bang benzoin are yielded by the same tree, and that the difference in 
the appearance and in the yield of cinnamic acid of ‘the two eke 
caused by differences in their mode of preparation. Mr, Ho 
does not agree with this view, but inclines to the belief that aa 
Sumatra and Palembang varieties are both produced by the same 
tree—styrax benzoin—and that the Penang gum is sui generis, prob— 
ably the produce of the Styraz subdenticulata, Mig., which occurs 
in Western Sumatra. Hanbury offers no definite opinion on the 
subject, nor does Fliickiger, in his last edition, just published, of the 
Pharmacognosie. Contributions to the elucidation of a subject upon 
which so much divergence of view exists among authorities are 
always welcome, and they become doy valaable. when they are 
the result of careful local examination. In London the druggists 
distinguish four varieties of benzoin, viz. re the costliest variety ; 
Sumatra, which comes next in value ; Penang, which is a comparative- 
ly recent addition to our Materia Medica, ahd 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 rem maining 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 over 
two centuries, still contains some of the least-known spots on earth, 
and the detailed account of the cultivation and collection of benzoin 
v 
