406 STYRACE^. 



are capable of yielding the resin. Incisions are then made in their 

 stems, from which there exudes a thick, whitish, resinous juice, which 

 soon hardens by exposure to the air, and is carefully scraped off 

 with a knife. 



The trees continue to yield at the rate of about three pounds per 

 annum for 10 or 12 years, after which period they are cut down. The 

 resin which exudes during the first three years is said to be fuller of 

 white tears, and therefore of finer quality, than that which issues sub- 

 sequently, and is termed by the Malays Head Benzoin. That which 

 flows during the next 7 or 8 years, is browner in colour and less 

 valuable, and is known as Belly Benzoin; while a third sort, called 

 Foot, is obtained by splitting the tree and scraping the wood ; this last 

 is mixed with much bark and refuse.^ 



Benzoin is brought for sale to the ports of Sumatra in large cakes 

 called Tampangs, wrapped in matting. These have to be broken, and 

 softened either by the heat of the sun or by that of boiling Avater, and 

 then packed into square cases which the resin is made to fill. 



The only account of the collection of Siam Benzoin is that 

 given by Sir R. H. Schomburgk, for some years British Consul at 

 Bangkok.^ He represents that the bark is gashed all over, and that 

 the resin which exudes, collects and hardens between it and the 

 wood, the former of which is then stripped ofi". This account is con- 

 firmed by the aspect of some of the Siam benzoin of commerce as 

 well as by that of pieces of bark in our possession; but it is also 

 evident that all the Siam drug is not thus obtained. Schomburgk 

 adds, that the resin is much injured and broken during its convey- 

 ance in small baskets on bullocks' backs to the navigable parts of 

 the Menam, whence it is brought down to Bangkok.^ 



Whether benzoin owes its original fluidity to a volatile oil hold- 

 ing the resin in solution, and its solidification to the volatilization 

 of this oil, or whether the resin itself hardens by oxidation, — what 

 occasions the remarkable diversity of aspect between the opaque and 

 milk-like, and the completely transparent resin, are questions to be 

 investigated by some future observer. 



Description — Benzoin (always termed in Englisli commerce Gum 

 Benjamin) is distinguished as of two kinds, Siam and Sumatra. Each 

 sort occurs in various degrees of purity, and under considerable 

 difierences of appearance. 



1. Siam Befizoin — The most esteemed sort is that which consists 

 entirely of flattened tears or drops, an inch or two long, of an opaque, 

 milk-like, white resin, loosely agglutinated into a mass. More fre- 

 quently the mass is quite compact, consisting of a certain proportion of 

 white tears of the size of an almond downwards, imbedded in a deep, 

 rich amber-brown, translucent resin. Occasionally the translucent resin 

 preponderates, and the white tears are almost wanting. In some 

 packages, the tears of white resin are very small, and the whole mass 



^ The terms Head, Belly and Foot, equi- ^ This account must have been derived 



valent to our words superior, medium and from others, for Sir R. H. Schomburgk 



inferior, are used in the East to distinguish never visited the region producing 



the qualities of many other commodities, benzoin. 



as Borneo Camphor, Esculent Birds'-nests, '^ Pharm, Journ. iii. (1862) 126. 

 (Jardamoms, Galbauuui, &c. 



