172 APPENDIX, 
seventeenth and its nineteenth year, the drying-up process com- 
mencing at the lower part. The natives collect three different 
qualities of gum, classed according to the lightness of their colour 
and their freedom from bark and other impurities. A full-grown 
benzoin-tree yields from 1 to 3 catties (=1} to 4 Ibs.) every season, 
and its cultivation is a source of considerable affluence to its pro- 
prietor. In the Moesi Llir 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 years ago, the collec 
tion of gum was carefully attended to. Still, the benzoin-producing 
villages of Sumatra are among the most prosperous in the whole 
island. If, through carelessness, as sometimes happens, the collection 
of the gum from some trees is forgotten during the season, the y 
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 eut from the trees with an axe, and roughly 
rinsed in the nearest creek, Afterwards hot water is poured over 
this gum, which softens it and renders 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 
exports from Palembang are about 700 tons per annum, Mr, Vonck 
mentions that the gum exported 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 cinnamie acid, but Mr, Vonck belieyes it to be due rather to 
the greater care which is bestowed upon its collection. As the 
Penang and Palembang gums are the least valuable on the London 
market, and their prices correspond most nearly to the figures given 
by Mr. Vonck as the local value of the gum, equalling from about 
5s. to 40s. 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 the pro- 
duct of the western districts of Sumatra, and may possibly be obtained 
from a different tree. (Chemist and Druggist, Sept. 26, 1891.) 
