13 



In trade, there are two forms of Benzoin used, the Palembang 

 benzoin, which is undoubtedly the produce of Stymx Benzoin, and 

 Siam Benzoin. This latter is believed to be derived from a different 

 tree and is reported to come from Laos. Up to the present time, 

 however, no one has obtained any botanical material enabling us to 

 decide from what tree it is derived, although many attempts have 

 been made to induce people living in Siam to procure specimens. 

 The Sumatra, or Palembang tree, inhabits dense forests at low eleva- 

 tions and attains a height of 60 to 8o feet or more with smooth grey 

 bark. The leaves are lanceolate acuminate light green above, white 

 or whitish beneath. The flowers in panicles or racemes are white 

 and very fragrant, calyx cup shaped pale green corolla half an inch 

 long of five narrow reflexed lanceolate lobes. 



The stamens are adnate to the tube, 10 in number, with long narrow 

 conspicuous orange anthers. Style straight and slender, a little longer. 

 The fruit is globose, flattened at each end, pale greyish green ^i-l 

 inch across, with rather thick, hard pulp, green and two hemispheric 

 brown seeds, rounded on the back and flat on the inner face. 



The tree flowers in quite a small state when it is about 12 feet 

 tall, and is worth cultivating for its fragrant and pretty flowers. 



It is very abundant in many parts of our forests, where the 

 ground may be often found strewed with its fruit. 



The Benzoin produced by the Malay Peninsula tree seems to be 

 quite as good as that from Palembang, but for som.e reason the 

 natives here seldom trouble to collect it. 



The resin does not flow readily when the tree is cut, and the bark 

 has no scent or signs of it at first, but about a fortnight or so after 

 the infliction of a wound it exudes and often trickles down the bark. 



The form that the resin appears in usually in the market is in 

 cubic blocks of a brown colour, containing opaque yellowish white 

 tears or almonds, with a good deal of debris of bark and wood. The 

 more of the tears in the mass the more valuable is the Benzoin. 

 The Sumatran Benzoin is not valued as highly as the Siamese kind, 

 having a less strong, and pleasant odour, and also being less pure. 

 Fluckiger and Hanbury mention a Penang Benjamin or Storax- 

 smelling Benjamin which differed in scent and appearance, being of 

 a finer quality. It probably came from Sumatra. Benzoin is chiefly 

 used in the manufacture of incense both in the East and in the 

 churches of the West. The crude produce is readily sublimed, form- 

 ing a strongly scented white mass of crystals. A Malay, I formerly 

 knew, used to heat the crude drug in a small earthen chatty which 

 was covered with a long cone (>f paper and cardboard about two 

 feet in length, the sublimed Benzoin was deposited on the walls 

 of the cone inside in the form of a white crystalline powder, winch 

 he sold to the natives as a crug at an enhanced price. 



