— 37 — 



have already repeatedly been dealt with in our Reports we refrain from 

 entering into further particulars. 



According to a communication by Thorns 1 ) to the German Colonial 

 Congress, held at Berlin from October 6 th to 8 th , 1910, the Committee for 

 the Economic Development of the German Colonies has offered a prize of 

 3000 o4t (£ 150, $ 750) for the first 5 kilos of camphor produced in a 

 German Colony. 



We have referred on a previous occasion 2 ) to Cayla's detailed state- 

 ments on the occurrence of a true and a spurious camphor tree in Indo- 

 China. At that time, Lan identified the spurious tree as Cinnamomum 

 zeylanicum, Br. Cayla reports 3 ) that Dubard has lately botanically examined 

 two parcels consisting of parts of plants from both species of trees sent 

 to him by the Agricultural Department of Indo-China, and that he (Dubard) 

 has proved beyond doubt that the specimen marked "spurious camphor 

 tree" was as a matter of fact derived from Cinnamum Camphora, while the 

 specimen marked "true camphor tree" consisted of parts of Cinnamomum 

 cecidodaphne var. caniflora. There was no room for any error so far as 

 Dubard's identification was concerned. Lemarie (continues Cayla) ob- 

 serves in connection with the above that the differentiation between the 

 true and the spurious camphor tree was merely a personal distinction 

 made by Crevost, by whom also the two specimens in question were for- 

 warded. According to Dubard the fact remains that two species of Cinna- 

 momum occur in Indo-China, both of which are designated there as "camphor 

 trees" and both of which, according to Meissner, contain camphor. Lan 

 passes without remark the identification of one of his specimens as 

 C. cecidodaphne and continues to maintain that his spurious camphor tree 

 is identical with C. zeylanicum , although the occurrence of the cinnamon 

 tree in Indo-China is not referred to either in the previously existing 

 literature on the subject or in the recent work of Perrot and Eberhardt. 

 It would indeed be remarkable if the Annamese, who surely must have 

 stripped the tree of its bark at some time or other, had named the tree 

 from its negative instead of its positive properties. The Japanese, too, 

 call their camphor tree the "spurious cinnamon tree of Japan". In any 

 case the occurrence of Cinnamomum zeylanicum in Indo-China would be a 

 new fact and well worth further investigation. 



On a previous occasion 4) we have given full details (taken from an 

 article by Cayla) on the experiments by Eaton and Campbell 5 ) in the 



*) Chem. Ztg. U (1910), 1237. 



2 ) Report April 1908, 23. 



3 ) Journ d' Agriculture tropicale 10 (1910), 252. 



4 ) Preliminary Notes on the Preparation of Camphor in the Federated Malay States 

 Agricultural Bulletin of the S. and F. M. P., August 1909. From a reprint kindly sent to us. 



: ') Report April 1910, 27. 



