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" The botanical source of East Indian dragon's blood is 

 usually given as Daemonorops draco, Mart. (C alliums draco, Wild.), 

 and the method of manufacture is copied from one work to 

 another. In 1878 a very beautiful specimen of dragon's blood of 

 an almost carmine red colour was presented to the Museum of 

 this Society by the Commissioner of the Court of the Netherland 

 Indies at the Paris Exhibition, and in 1890 some information 

 was contributed by Dr. M. Treub, Director of the Buitenzorg 

 Botanic Gardens in Java, on the source of the different kinds of 

 dragon's blood, and w r as published in the Pharmaceutical Journal 

 for 1890 (3) 21, 518-519. This information showed that at 

 Pontianak, in West Sumatra, whence the beautiful bright red 

 dragon's blood above-mentioned came, three different species of 

 the dragon's blood plant are characterised by having fruits of 

 different size. The smallest fruits yield the most beautiful and 

 most valuable dragons' blood, which is called " Dj email g Mundai" 

 The tree yielding this kind is rare and the price of the resin high. 

 The moderate sized fruits yield the kind sold in flat cakes of 

 varying size, and this kind is known as " Djemang BeroewangT 

 The largest fruits yield the dragon's blood sold in pipes, which 

 is known as " Djemang Koekoe." At that time the botanical 

 source of these fruits was unknown. In 1903, Dr. Beccari, who 

 botanised in Borneo and Sumatra, published in the Records of 

 the Botanical Survey of India, Vol, 11. No. 3,224, an enumera- 

 tion of the species of Calamus, which includes a v number of species 

 of the genus Daemonorops, all of one section of which yield, in a 

 greater or less degree, a red resin, which is exuded by the scales 

 of their fruits when mature. 



" These resin-yielding , species belong to the Section 

 Piptospathae of the genus Daemonorops, in which the outer spathe 

 does not completely enclose the inner, the spadix is narrow and 

 cylindrical, or elongate before flowering, and then more or less 

 diffusely branched. In this section there are three groups, and 

 the dragon's blood plants are found in the Group C, which is 

 distinguished by having the outer spathes either both deciduous 

 or the outer one along persistent, and more or less armed with 

 short, stout spines, the leaf-sheaths being also armed with 

 scattered or serrate spines, which are never confluent, into an 

 annular or spinulose crest. As the species are discriminated rather 

 by the character of the leaves and inflorescence than by the 

 flowers, and the material in herbaria generally has either the one 

 or the other, but rarely both on the same specimen, it is by no 

 means easy to determine the species to which the fruits used for 

 the preparation of dragon's blood belong. 



" From Beccari's monograph it appears that Daemonorops 

 draco, Blume, consists of two species, one which Beccari calls 

 D. propinquus, the other being the D. ruber of Martius. These 

 are found in Penang and Sumatra. The plant called D. ruber 

 by Blume is a native of Java, and considered by Beccari to be 



