Botany and Zoology. 113 
III. Botany anp Zootoey. 
1. The Camphor-Tree of Sumatra, (Dryobalanops Camphora.)—An 
account of this tree, and of the mode of procuring the peculiar and high- 
priced camphor which it yields, is given by Dr. Junghuhn, who has trav- 
elled largely in Sumatra, and Prof. De Vriese, of Leyden, in the NVed- 
erlandsch Kruidkundig Archief, for 1851. An abstract of the memoir, 
translated into English by Miss De Vriese, is published in Hooker's Jour- 
nal of Botany for Feb. and March, 1852. The-Dryobalanops is a gi- 
gantic tree, rising for fifty or even a hundred feet above those which 
com the chief mass of the forests where’ they grow, just as the 
steeples of churches appear above the roofs of the houses in a town. 
The trunks of the full-grown trees are from 7 to 10 feet in diameter at - 
the very base, and from 5 to 8 feet "higher up: they rise to the height of 
100 or 130 feet, and.their ample crown is from 50 to 70 feet in diameter. 
The tree has a limited range, being confined to the seaward slope of 
the mountains of south-western Sumatra, most abundant on the lower 
slopes and the outlying hills of the alluvial plain, and extending in 
latitude from 1°10 to 2° 20° N 
amphor-oil occurs in all the trees, and is most abundant in the younger 
rm; and that a single tree yields about eleven pounds. The price of 
this camphor, which at Padang sells for about $340. per hundred 
Weight, suffices to show that the account is much exaggerated. The 
eimphor occurs only in small fissures, from which the natives, having 
felled the trees and split up the wood, scrape it off with small splinters, 
pr with their nails. From the oldest and richest trees they rarely col- 
More than two ounces. After a long stay in the woods, frequently 
of three months, during which they may fell a hundred trees, a party o 
this Cosily substance are enhanced by a custom which has immemo- 
nally prevailed among the Battas, of delaying the burial of every per- 
son who, during his life had a claim to the title of Rajah (of which each 
. b 
like the grain six months before ; and thus the hope is emblematically 
;aPressed, that, as a new life arises from the seed, so another life s 
begin for man after his death. During this time the corpse is kept in the 
use, inclosed in a coffin made of the hollowed trunk of a Durion, a 
the whole Space between the coffin and the body is filled with pounded 
<’phor ; for the purchase of which the family of the deceased Ra 
Jah often impoverish themselves. ‘The camphor-oil is collected by in- 
©'sions at the base of the trunk, from which the clear, balsamic juice is 
‘ery slowly discharged, 
Stconn Semis, Vol. XIV, No. 40—July, 1852. 16 
