ON SIAMESE PRODUCTS. 445 



Amongst other articles of export are Cardamoms, of which there are 

 two kinds ; I consider both species of the genus Alphiia.* 



I have to regret that the botanical character of a large nnniber of the 

 trees and plants employed as simples by the Siamese and Chinese doctors is 

 unknown. They are reeeived from the interior, leafless and flowerless. 

 These medicine-men possess, no doubt, some knowledge of the nature and 

 application of herbs and trees, as well as of some animal substances (in 

 regard to the latter, greatly combined with superstition), but there, their 

 knowledge rests. The mountainous region, principally of the Lao country, 

 furnishes these simples. 



Fish, in its fresh, dried, and salted state, is of great importance, not 

 only for the nourishment of the thousands of Siamese inhabitants, but 

 likewise as an article of export to Singapore, Java, and China. The 

 feathers of birds transmitted, are principally exported to China. The poop 

 of the boats of high Siamese noblemen is adorned with peacock feathers, 

 those of the pelican are employed for fans, and would equally make excellent 

 quills. 



Messrs. A. Markwald and Co., merchants of Bangkok, have added a 

 collection of produce, &c. ; amongst it, I would wish to draw the attention to 

 the bird's-nests, beche de mer, hemp, raw silk, cotton, sticklacks, long pepper, 

 teel-seed, gamboge, rosin, shark-fins, dammar Kan Chai, tin and lead, all of 

 which do not exist in my collection ; both these collections united, will give 

 a fair idea of the produce of Siam, whether taken from the animal, vege- 

 table, or mineral kingdom, produced by cultivation, or the spontaneous 

 production of a congenial soil under the tropics. 



Bangkok, January, 20, 1862. 



List of Articles forwarded from Bangkok, in Siam, for the 

 International Exhibition, 1862, by Sir Robert H. Schomburgk. 



1 to 3. Petticoats for Lao females of rank, manufactured of Chinese, or 

 of Korat silk, embroidered with gold thread, and coloured silks. 



These dresses are executed without any of the improvements which our 

 looms afford, indeed altogether in the most primitive manner. 



4. Ditto unfinished. 



5. The lower border for the above. 



6. The Petticoat of a Burmese female. 



7. Ditto of a Karen female, ornamented with seeds of two species of 

 Job's tears (Coix Lacryma). 



8 to 10. Waistcloths of men of the Lao tribe, of the northern tributary 

 States of Siam, manufactured of Chinese silks, by Lao women. 



11. Dress of a Karen, manufactured by females of his tribe. 



12 and 13. Blankets or coverlets, manufactured in the Lao country, 

 from native cotton. 14 and 15, Ditto of Karens. 



* Elettaria.— Editor. 



