53 S ON THE CAMPHOR-TREE 



Japan Is defcribed to be.* But, as neither of thofe gentlemen feems 

 to have been converfant with botany, it continued to be far from im- 

 probable, that the botanical character of the plant might have been 

 miflaken by them; and that it was referred by the author of the eflay 

 cited, to the genus Laurus, or to the clafs and order to which that 

 genus belongs, upon no other foundation but a preconceived notion 

 grounded upon the exifting information concerning the camphor tree 

 of Japan. It was the lefs unlikely, that the two plants might belong to 

 different genera, or even to different orders, as camphor is well known 

 to be a production of a great variety of plants, though in a lefs pure 

 Hate, and not fo readily and abundantly afforded ; and as it was ob- 

 ferved by Kcemp-fer, in fpcaking of the Laurus camphonfera and of the 

 extraction of camphor from its wood and roots with the aid of the heat, 

 that (S natural camphor in fubftance and of greatelt value is furninVd 

 by a tree on the iilands of Sumatra and Borneo, which is not of the 

 Laurus genus." ei Camphorarn naturalem et criftalliham perquam pre- 

 tiofam ac raram impertitur arbor in Sumatra et Borneo infulis. Sed 

 hoec arbor ex Dap'hneo fanguine non eft."f 



Considering then the fpecific character of the camphor tree of 

 Sumatra to be unfettled, and the generic character dubious, botanifts in 



India have been long felicitous of more correcl and definite information 

 on this fubjeft, and Doctor Roxburgh in particular was at great 

 pains to procure living plants with fpecirnens of the fructification. 

 His endeavours had not been fuccefsful at the time of his quitting 

 India: but he had received a rou^h Iketch of the fruit and leaf, 

 from -the appearance of which he was led to name the plant Shorea 



• Kcempf. Amosn. 770, Thunb, Jap, B72, 

 i Amcen. Exot. p. 775, 



