EIPTEROGARPACEM. 219 



is more the object of scientific curiosity, as the alcohol of the 

 camphor of Japan or China, than an article of consumption. Its 

 price is very high ; and the Rajahs of Sumatra rather than enrich 

 themselves by exporting it, use it almost entirely in their country 

 to preserve the bodies of their friends during the long period which 

 precedes their interment. 1 It is said to be frequently employed in 

 China and Japan as a tonic and stimulant. Dryobalanops furnishes 

 besides a yellowish balsamic oil, called oil of camphor, which is 

 obtained by incisions, and collected in small quantities in a half 

 cylinder of cleft bamboo. It is afterwards strained and put in 

 bottles to preserve it. Several other species of this family produce 

 thus a kind of wood oil (/utile de bois as it is called in the French 

 possessions of Cochin China), used as a vulnerary and employed for a 

 number of industrial purposes. These are principally DijAerocarpus 

 and Anisoptera. They are on this account analogous to Valeria 

 indica, 2 from which is obtained a false resin, called copal in India, 

 and, when fresh, appearing under the form of a liquid varnish called 

 Pimen dammar, or Piney varnish, in British India ; it is solid, 

 tenacious, but has the inconvenience of melting at a moderately low 

 temperature (36°*5 Centig.). According to Wight it is obtained by 

 making incisions in the trunk of the tree ; the liquid collects and 

 hardens on a level with the solution of continuity. Upon the coast 

 of Malabar wax lights are made of it, which give a brilliant light 

 and exhale a perfumed odour. The balsamic and resinous juice of 

 Dipterocarpus trinervis (fig. 215) is used in Java, according to Blume, 

 in the preparation of an excellent unguent applied with success to 

 wounds ; and it furnishes a dye, or with the yolk of egg an emulsion 

 producing the same effects as the copaivi balsam. The natives 

 of the country coat the leaves of the Banana tree with this 

 resin, and afterwards make them into torches which give a 

 white light, and have not a disagreeable odour. Several other 

 species of Dipterocarpus afford analogous productions, wood oils 

 which are used like the copaivi for domestic and industrial purposes. 

 Such are those from which is extracted the Gurjun of the Indians (in 

 Cingalese, Dhronatil). The principal species so used are D. Itevis 



1 See De Vriese, in Hook. Lond. Journ., iv. 145. — Hemiphr •actum Tuecz., in Bull. Mosc- 

 (1852), 33, 68. — Hook., Journ., iv. 200. (1859), i. 262. — Eloeocarpus copalliferus Retz., 



2 L., Spec, 734. — GjEETN. i\, Frv.ct., iii. 1. 189. Obs., iv. n. 85. — Pacnoe Rheed., Sort. Malab., 

 — Roxb., Fl. bid., ii. 602. — Lindl., Fl. Med., iv. t. 15 (vulg. Peini marum). 



