170 | APPENDIX. 
in one of the remoter districts of the island, which we owe to Mr, L. 
M, Vonck, a member of the Dutch-Indian Civil Service, stationed 
at Sekajoe, in Sumatra, and which is published in the last issue of 
the Journal of the Netherlands Society for the Advancement of 
Industry, is, therefore, an acceptable addition to our knowledge of 
the collection of this important drug and the manner in which it 
passes into commerce. Mr. Vonck does not refer to the gum, of 
which he speaks either as Palembang, Penang, or Sumatra benzoin, 
and it may, therefore, be taken for granted that those classifications 
are unfamiliar tohim, The gum of which he writes, and which 
appears the only kind brought into’ commerce from south-eastern 
Sumatra, is evidently all obtained from one tree, and seems to corre-~ 
spond with the kinds known to our druggists as Penang and Palem- 
bang. So far as his evidence goes, therefore, it certainly favours 
Dr, Treub’s opinion that there is no diff bet the com ial 
source of Penangand Palembang benzoin. The benzoin-tree (Styraz 
Benzoin, or, in Malay, pohon Kemenjan, or Menjan) occurs, accord- 
ing to Mr. Vonck, in various portions of the high and low lands of 
the residency of Palembang. It grows up to an altitude of about 
600 feet above sea-level, either in small clusters or sporadically 
between other trees, Formerly little attention appears to- have been 
paid to benzoin-culture. At any rate, the standard writers on the 
products of the Dutch Indies only mention benzoin as being collected 
from wild-growing trees in the virgin forests of the Upper Blitie, 
on the Lalang and Toengkal rivers, and in the wilds of Batang Lakoh 
in the country of the Koeboes. But the easy nature of the culture, 
and the high prices which good benzoin realised in former years 
(from £6 to £8 10s, per picul), acted as strong incentives to the 
extension of the plantation. There are only a few parts of the 
residency of Palembang in which the benzoin-tree is either scarce or 
non-existent. In some other districts the tree is found wild, but its 
gum is never collected, nor is the tree cultivated systematically. The 
principal districts in which the benzoin-tree is systematically culti- 
vated in gardens are the divisions of Iliran, Banjoeasin, and Moesi 
Dir. In the Koeboe country, already referred to above, in the 
s experience shows a high, dry 
sandy soil, free from danger of inundation, to be most fitted for its 
