46 SEVERAL SPECIES OF 



it can only be extracted by felling the tree, which is 

 afterwards cut into blocks and split with wedges, and 

 the camphor, which is white and transparent, is then 

 taken out. An essential oil is also found in hollows 

 in the wood, which the natives crystallize artificially, 

 but the camphor thus obtained is not so much esteemed 

 as that found naturally crystallized. The tree is found 

 on all the northern parts of Borneo, and is said to be 

 particularly abundant in the country of the Kyans, in 

 the interior of the Bintulu and Rejang rivers. The 

 produce, though so valued by the Chinese, is not 

 used much by the natives, though it is occasionally 

 taken inwardly as a medicine. The price in China of 

 the Bornean camphor is said to be higher than that of 

 Japan, in the proportion of twenty to one : it has been 

 supposed that this disproportion is caused more by 

 some superstitions of the consumer, than any real dis- 

 tinction of properties, for though the trees which 

 produce them are so dissimilar, the chemical properties 

 are said nearly to approach each other. 



Several trees of the genus Dipterocarpus produce a 

 nut, that, when compressed, yields a fatty oil, which 

 having been recently sent to England, has been used 

 extensively under the names of vegetable tallow and 

 vegetable wax. Three species of this genus are com- 

 mon in Sarawak, under the name of ' mencabang ;' one 

 of them, ' mencabang pinang/ is valued for its close- 

 grained timber; the others do not grow so large in 

 size, but have larger leaves and fruit. The one most 

 valued for producing the oil, is a fine tree growing on 

 the banks of the Sarawak river ; it attains the height 



