[Crown Copyright Reserved, 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
No. 4] [1921 
YIELD 
XIV. 
IN CINNAMOMUM CAMPHORA. 
S. T. Dunn. 
During the last years of the 19th century in consequence of 
the rising price of camphor and of the increasing demand for it 
for the manufacture of cellulose, numerous enquiries were 
addressed to Kew from the warmer parts of the British Empire 
as to the feasibility of growing the Camphor Tree there and 
producing remunerative plantations. To circulate information 
on this subject a paper was published in the Kew Bulletin (1899, 
pp. 57-68), making suggestions for the guidance of intending 
planters and summarising what had already been done in the 
camphor-planting industry. 
The production of camphor plantations was about that time 
taken in hand in many parts of the world and camphor was 
soon being produced from the leaves of the young saplings on 
the same plan as had been tried with success by Mr. Nock in 
the Government Gardens at Hakgala, Ceylon. As some of these 
plantations progressed and attempts were made to extract 
camphor from the leaves, complaints began to be heard (notably 
from Dominica, St. Vincent, and Mauritius), that many young 
trees would not yield anything but oil, from which no solid 
camphor could be produced. In the case of Mauritius nearly 
all the plants were “‘ oil-yielding ’’ and it became a question of 
considerable economic importance how to avoid such disappointing 
results. 
The existence of worthless as well as valuable camphor trees 
had long been recognised by the camphor distillers in China, 
Japan, Formosa, Cochin-China and other places where Cinna- 
momum Camphora, Nees, was exploited as a wild or cultivated 
tree. But now that the same phenomenon was begi to 
appear in newly-made plantations it became important to all 
concerned to discover a remedy. 
az (78)14817 Wt81—P 20 1000 6/21 A 
