276 
and I send it to you for insertion in the Kew Bulletin. Mr. Gilman is 
a member of the American Presbyterian Mission, stationed in Kiung- 
chow, the capital of Hainan, and he makes journeys from time to time 
in the interior of the island, which is inhabited by the Loi, a non- 
Chinese race. 
* During a recent missionary journey I travelled the entire length of 
the Loi country, and collected two specimens of the leaves of the plant 
from which the Bie te is distilled, and in several places I saw the 
natives manufacturing 2 e article, and I had a chance to Jäite 
ei gi into ds proces 
* The plant is in Hower in July and August. During the fall and 
winter months the Chinese of the island, or the aboriginal Lois in 
Chinese employ, collect the young leaves of the plant which there grows 
to a height of 8 or 10 feet. They say they only take the last “three 
joints of the branch, as in the specimens which I have collected. 
ese leaves are TRES € remain on the branch, and are wilted for a 
couple of days. They are then placed in the retort, which is a cask 
about two feet high, Spits at both ends, and of a diameter suitable to 
5 B over a large Chinese frying pan (say, the diameter is 20 inches). 
g pan is filled with water, and over the water is placed a 
cete: sieve of woven Hiio to separate the leaves from the water. 
The cask is cemented with clay to the edge of the pan, and after 
g its — of 30 Ibs. or 40 
upper open end of the eask, and is filled with 
cold water which is frequently changed. Fire is placed under the 
ing pan, and the process of distillation is continued for about four 
hours. At the end of that time the brass pan is lifted off, and its 
lower surface is found to be coated with a layer of crystallized substane 
about a sixteenth of an inch thick. This is the gnia-hin (local dialect 
for ai i-fén) or crude camphor, which Mr. Unwin, the Commissioner, 
tells me is sent to Canton and re-manufactured into ai-p’ien or refined 
m 
or. 
I enclose Mr. Gilman’s specimen, which is not Blumea balsamifera, 
but, as well as I can make out from a cursory examination, is probably 
a species of Buddleia. There are no flowers, only leaves, and the 
latter have no camphoraceous odour when bruised, I am inclined to 
think that Mr. Gilman has been deceived as to the plant, and that the 
Chinese substituted the leaves of another plant for the one actually 
employed. I am inclined to think that Blumea balsamifera is the true 
source. The wt of Blumea have a certain rude similarity to those - 
sent by Mr. Gilma 
The authority for Blumea as the source of this peculiar camphor 
rests on Hanbury, Science Papers, p. 394. In Hooker’s Icones 
Plantarum, tab. 1957, this plant is figured, and some particulars as 
regards the trade in the commodity, &c. are given ra from me. 
ours 
(Signed) rt HENRY. 
For the x A —— information Kew is indebted to Mr. M. F. 
A. Fraser, H.M. Consul, Pakhoi, who communicated it, together with a 
series of specimens tu the Museum, in a letter dated 5th December 
1893. 
À.—TRANSLATION from the Pen-ts'ao Kang muh, or grt Materia 
ediea, by Li Shi-chen, date about 1600 A.D 
Thousand-year ngai (Blumea balsamifera), grows iaai at 
Pey (? in Hupeh Province, lat. 32° 40^, long. 111° 08'), and in 
