camb] 



%\yt Ersatfurg al ISntang. 



206 



stalks growing a foot or a foot and a halt 

 high, and bearing from twelve to twenty 

 blue or white flowers. The principal charac- 

 ter of the flower consists in its having a 

 calyx of six sepals slightly connected at the 

 base, and spread out horizontally but not 

 equally, the five upper ones being closer 

 together and inclined upwards, whilst the 

 lower or sixth stands by itself and is bent 

 downwards, each petal having three promi- 

 nent nerves on its outside, and a stamen at- 

 tached to its base on the inside, and they do 

 not fall off, but wither and remain till the 

 fruit is ripe. The ovary is nearly round, and 

 is divided into three cells, each of which 

 contains numerous ovules attached to the 

 centre in two rows. This plant grows 

 in great abundance in swampy plains on the 

 north-west coast of America and Vancou- 

 ver's Island, and its bulbs form the greater 

 part of the vegetable food of the Indians, 

 the different tribes visiting the plains for 

 the purpose of collecting them, immedi- 

 ately after the plant has flowered. The 

 digging of Quamash is a time of feasting 

 and rejoicing amongst the Indians; the 

 entire labour, however, devolves upon the 



Camassia esculenta. 



women ; and the unmarried females endea- 

 vour to excel each other in the quantity of 

 the roots they collect, their fame as future 

 good wives depending upon their activity in 

 the Quamash plains. The roots are cooked 

 by digging a hole in the ground and paving 

 it with large stones, upon which a Are is 

 lighted and kept up until they are red-hot, 

 when they are covered with alternate layers 

 of branches and roots till the hole is full : 

 it is then covered with earth and a fire 

 kept burning upon it for twenty-four 

 hours, when the roots are taken out and 

 dried, or pounded into cakes for future 

 use. [A. S.] 



CAMBESSEDESIA. A genus of Melas- 

 tomacecB, consisting of erect or ascending 

 dichotomously-branched Brazilian shrubs, 

 with the leaves at the apex of the branches, 

 sessile, opposite, or verticillate, ovate, ob- 

 long, or linear, generally three nerved ; 



flowers handsome, terminal and axillary 

 in paniculate cymes; calyx bell-shaped,with 

 a flve-lobed limb ; petals five, obovate, 

 scarlet ; stamens ten ; ovary free, three- 

 celled ; capsule ovate-globose. [J. T. S.] 



CAMBIUM. The viscid fluid which ap- 

 pears between the bark and wood of Exo- 

 gens, when the new wood is forming. 

 Also the mucus of vegetation out of which 

 all new organs are produced. 



CAMBOGIA. A genus of tropical shrubs 

 belonging to the Clusiacece, and containing 

 one of the plants which yields the well- 

 known pigment gamboge. They have lea- 

 thery simple leaves ; the male and female 

 flowers on different trees, and the petals 

 white with a pink tinge towards the base. 

 The name Cambogia is given from the cir- 

 cumstance of the drug being produced in 

 greatest quantity in that part of Siam 

 called Cambodja. Linnaeus strangely con- 

 founded two Ceylon plants under the name 

 Cambogia Gutta, the one having stalked 

 and furrowed fruit, which is the true Cey- 

 lon gamboge, and has been called by sub- 

 sequent authors Garcinia Cambogia, and 

 Hebradendron cambogoides ; the other with 

 sessile fruit, not furrowed, which does not 

 yield gamboge, is now called Garcinia 

 Morella. 



Two kinds of gamboge are known, the 

 Ceylon gamboge and the Siam gamboge, 

 both of them gummy-resinous exudations, 

 obtained from the wounded stems of the 

 trees or by breaking of the leaves and 

 young twigs, and receiving the yellow 

 juice as it drops in suitable vessels. That 

 of Ceylon is sold in the bazaars on the 

 Coromandel coast, and is said to be as good 

 as the Siamese, but the process it goes 

 through in preparation does not purify it 

 sufficiently, and, therefore, it is not sold 

 so readily as that from Siam. By far the 

 greater portion of the gamboge so exten- 

 sively used in the arts, as a water-colour, 

 and as a varnish for lacquer work, as well 

 as in medicine, is sent from Siam, and is 

 supposed to be the produce of a species of 

 Garcinia, but the plant is not known to 

 botanists. It is said to form part of the 

 tribute paid to the kings of Siam, and is 

 sent to England from Singapore in boxes 

 or bags, of from one to two hundred weight 

 each, the amount annually imported being 

 about 800 cwt. Gamboge is known in com- 

 merce in three distinct forms: in rolls or 

 solid cylinders, in pipes or hollow cylin- 

 ders, and in cakes. The two former are 

 collected in the same manner, the juice 

 when in a liquid state being run into hol- 

 low bamboos, about twenty inches long and 

 one and a half in diameter, and allowed to 

 harden. In this form it is known as pipe 

 gamboge. The cake or lump gamboge 

 occurs in round or square lumps, or masses 

 I several pounds in weight, and is generally 

 l inferior in quality to the former, which is 

 j an excellent and powerful purgative in 

 ■■ doses of three, five, or seldom more than 

 seven grains; on theotherhand,itisadan- 

 I gerous poison in large doses, causing death 



