e 251 : 
soil, deprived of its natural shade, is left either to be burned into the 
n of a brick, or else the whole place is TE gem lalang. 
e only wonder is that a Gambier plantation is not u 
It is une an error to — that thé plant ina. the soil like 
indigo. The manufacture of so mpi is as 
barbarous as its ‘cultivation. The green leaves and shoots are roughly 
chopped with a parang and thrown into a qualli, whieh i is then filled 
up with water; the furnace below the iron pan is of the roughest 
possible construction, and consumes an immense quantity of firewood 
outside to be afterwards carried uff to the pepper garden. The liquor 
left in the qualli from the second boiling is too weak to converted 
into Gambier, but is an excellent extract in which to boil up the next 
lot of green leaves. As soon as the extract in the small wooden tubs, 
already spoken of, i is suificiently cool to allow of the hand being placed 
in it, a very curious process of agitation is adopted by the Chinese, 
which it is difficult to clearly deser ibe. The coolie squats before the 
own a piece of light shaped like elon dice-box. The 
immediate effect of this treatment, is to cau Gambier extract to 
thicken. In fact it sets up a process of Doers Ana the extract 
assumes a coucrete form, and becomes Gambier. is quite cool 
it is turned out from the tub, as from a mould, and sated with a knife, 
trays placed in rudely constructed racks over = dapur, and should 
be left there for four or five days to get smoke-dried. The cubes at the 
end of this time, will have thrown off an inimense percentage of water, 
and have become greatly reduced in size. In the 
ordinary run of Gambier, which merchants are now content to receive, 
there are no traces of cubing, and when cubes are to be discerned they 
e of an extraordinary size, the colour is of an unclean white to a dirty 
pale yellow, and the mass frequently steams.” 
e account of Gambier preparation given by Fluckiger and Hanbury 
(.Pharmacographia, p. 337), differs in some slight details. It is 
borrowed from Jagor’s Singapore, Malacca and v Berlin, 1866. 
* 'The Gambier plants are allowed to grow 8 to 10 feet” high, and 
as their foliage is always in season, each plant is stripped three or four 
times in the year. The apparatus and all that belongs to the manufac- 
f the m l 
cast-iron pan about three feet across is built into an earthen fireplace. 
ki 
Water is poured into the pan, a fire is kindled, and the leaves and young 
shoots, freshly plucked, are scattered in, and boile for about an hour. 
$ : 
boiler. The decoction is then evaporated to the consistence of a thin 
