15 



large cakes covered with matting. In order to pack it in chests it is 

 necessary to soften with boiling water the coarser sorts, the head 

 benjamin is broken into pieces and exposed to the heat of the sun 

 which proves sufficient to run it down." 



Marsden does not give a clear enough description of the tree to 

 show whether it is truly Styrax Benzoin he talks of. He says the tree 

 does not grow to any considerable size and is never used for timber. 

 The seeds are round, of a brown colour, and about the size of a 

 moderate bolus. The leaves are rough, crisp, inclining to curl at the 

 point (perhaps he only saw dry ones) and yield a very strong scent re- 

 sembling that of turpentine. 



Teysmann saw the cultivation in the neighbourhood of Batang 

 Leko in Sumatra, the t-ee being planted 15 feet apart. 



It does not seem to have ever been cultivated in the Malay 

 Peninsula. 



Siam Benzoin. 



The Benzoin of Siam as found in commerce has long been sus- 

 pected to have a diffcront origin from the Suuiairan Benzoin, but till 

 lately it has apparently been impossible to get any reliable infoima- 

 tion about it, or specimens of the tree. Mr. E. M. Holmes, the 

 well-known curator of the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society, has 

 for many years been endeavouring to trace up this plant, and has 

 recently been able to procure fresh information on the subject, but 

 still much remains unknown. Mr. Jamie, a former resident of Singa- 

 pore, possessed a garden containing many rare plants, among which 

 was a Siam Benzoin tree, and from this tree sent to the Pharmaceuti- 

 cal Society a twig w-ith leaves, in 1883. At Mr. Holmes' request I 

 visited this once famous garden in 1889, and found it had passed into 

 Chinese hands and been neglected and I was unable to find an}^ trace 

 of the tree. Further attempts were made by Mr. Holmes and myself 

 to obtain specimens from Siam without success. Residents in Siam 

 told me that the tree did not occur near Bangkok but very far up- 

 country in Laos. Recently, however, Herr Rordorf of Basle obtained 

 from his brother-in-law, Dr. Nuwenhuis, Dutch Minister in Siam, 

 some specimens of the tree and resin from the north-west provinces 

 of Kiang Mai near the source of the river Meping, and describes 

 them in the Schweizirische Wochenschrift and Mr. Holmes gives an 

 account of this paper, Mith further notes on the resin, in the 

 Pharmaceutical Society's Journal, Oct. 29, 1910, p. 515. The leaves are 

 described as II to 12 inches long and 4 to 5 inches wide, leathery, 

 longish. ovate and acuminate, the margins slightly undulate and 

 entire. The upper surface dark olive green and glabrous with promin- 

 ent veins, the under surface paler, olive green with abundant appres'=ed 

 stellate hairs. This description clearly shows that the plant is quite 

 distinct from the Malayan S. Benzoin. The leaves are nearly twice 



