CAMPHOR. 343 
slowly at 100° C., more quickly at higher temperatures in sealed 
tubes. 
Although the Chinese make large use of “ ordinary camphor” 
produced in Japan and Formosa, they attach a much higher value 
to the camphor obtained in Sumatra and Borneo from the Dryo- 
banalops aromatica, Gertner (D. camphora, Colebrooke). 
Attention was drawn by Daniel Hanbury * to a third kind of 
camphor, standing intermediate in value between the two above- 
mentioned descriptions, that is to say :-— 
When the Formosan camphor was worth $25 per pecul (1334 lbs.), 
the Japan Bs - 30 Fe 
the Ngai BS a 250 33 
the Malay, Ist quality ag 2000 = 
2 2nd » ” 1000 » 
This Ngai camphor is closely allied to the rare Malay camphor, 
being identical in chemical composition and very similar in odour, 
and yet now and from time immemorial the Chinese appreciate the 
Malay camphor enormously higher than the Ngai which grows in 
their own country. 
The Ngai camphor is produced by the Blumea balsamifera, D.C. 
(Coniza bulsamifera, Linn.), a very large, herbaceous, or bushy 
member of the Compositz. 1t is figured in Oliver’s ‘Icones Plan- 
tarum’ for April 1891, tab. 1957. 
This species is a native of India from the Himalayas southwards ; 
it is common throughout the Eastern Himalaya at altitudes ranging 
from 1000 to 4000 feet. It occurs in the Khasia Hills, in Chitta- 
gong and Pegu, and extends to Singapore and the Indian Archi- 
pelago. It is a wonderfully common weed in Burmah and Assam, 
and is distributed throughout the Eastern peninsula to China. It 
occurs at Hainan and Kwangtung and on the coast of Formosa. 
The crude product is known to the Chinese as Ngai-fén. It is 
refined at Canton, and is then known as Ngai-p-ien, or refined 
camphor, about 10,000 lbs. of which are annually exported from 
thence. It is also exported from the port of Hoihow in Hainan 
to the extent of about 15,000 lbs. annually. 
The abundance of the plant in Burmah is mentioned by Mr. 
Thiselton Dyer in the ‘ Journal of the Linnean Society’ (Bot.), xx. 
* Pharm. Journ. [3] iv. p. 709, 
