566 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818 



It is evident that the author 

 of that essay (M. Macdonald), 

 or the person from whom he 

 derived his information (Lieut. 

 Lewis), considered the plant in 

 question to be a laurel ; as the 

 camphor tree of Japan is des- 

 cribed to be.* But, as neither 

 of those gentlemen seems to have 

 been conversant with botany, it 

 continued to be far from impro- 

 bable that the botanical character 

 of the plant might have been 

 mistaken by them ; and that it 

 was referred by the author of the 

 essay cited, to the genus Laurus, 

 or to the class and order to which 

 that genus belongs, upon no other 

 foundation but a preconceived 

 notion grounded upon the exist- 

 ing information concerning the 

 camphor tree of Japan. It was 

 the loss unlikely, that tlie two 

 plants might belong to different 

 genera, or even to different orders, 

 as camphor is well known to be 

 a production of a great variety of 

 plants, though in a less pure 

 state, and not so readily and 

 abundantly afforded ; and, as it 

 was observed by Kcempfer, in 

 speaking of the Laurus cam- 

 phorifera and of the extraction of 

 camphor from its wood and 

 roots with the aid of heat, that 

 " natural camphor in substance 

 and of greatest value is furnished 

 by a tree on the islands of Sti- 

 matrd and Borneo, which is not 

 of the Laurus genus." " Cam- 

 phoram naturalem et cristallinam 

 perquam pretiosam ac raram 

 impertitur arbor in SumatrS et 

 Borneo insulis. Sed haec arbor 

 ex Daphneo sanguine non est,"t 



* Kcempf. Amcen. p. 770. 

 t Amoen, Exot. p. 773. 



Considering then the specific 

 character of the camphor tree of 

 Sumatra to be unsettled, and the 

 generic character dubious, bota- 

 nists in India have been long 

 solicitous of more correct and 

 definite information on this 

 subject, and Doctor Roxburgh, 

 in particular, was at great pains 

 to procure living plants with 

 specimens of the fructification. 

 His endeavours had not been suc- 

 cessful at the time of his quitting 

 India ; but he had received a 

 rough sketch of the fruit and 

 leaf, from the appearance of 

 which he was led to name the 

 plant Shorea camphorifera ; and 

 his conjecture, as will be shown, 

 was not very remote from the 

 truth. 



It has been my fortune, in his 

 absence, to receive from Doctor 

 Roxburgh's correspondent at 

 Tapanooly (Mr. Prince, the 

 resident at that station), a num- 

 ber of the seeds in very perfect 

 condition, and a few living plants. 

 The latter, I am sorry to say, did 

 not outlive the subsequent cold 

 season; but the examination of 

 the seed enables me to determine 

 the genus of the plant with entire 

 confidence. It undoubtedly 

 belongs to tlie Dryobalanops of 

 the younger Gcertner ; and is not 

 unlikely to be the identical 

 species which furnished the 

 specimen inspected by him, and 

 which he named Dryobalanops 

 aronicitica. Gcertner's informa- 

 tion, indeed, states the specimen 

 to have been received from 

 Ceylon, with an intimation that 

 the bark of the tree is the genuine 

 and best cinnamon. But, as 

 there is every reason to be satis- 

 fied, that cinnamon is exclusively 



produced 



