JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



Vol, V 



New Series DECEMBER, 1899 Part XII 



CAMPHOR. 



(Cinnamomum Camphora, Nees) 



Enquiries continue to be made as to the cultivation of the tree 

 producing this substance. A brief note was given in the Kew Bulle- 

 tin for 1895 (p. 305). 



Hitherto the use of camphor in medicine and the arts has been 

 comparatively small. A new application is, however, likely to increase 

 its consumption, perhaps indefinitely. This is described in the follow- 

 ing words by Sir Frederick Abel, in a letter printed in the Bulletin : — 



" This substance has been used extensively for many years past, and 

 no doubt in continually increasingly quantities, for the conversion of 

 collodion cotton into the material known as Celluloid, which is applied 

 to the manufacture of imitation ivory, tortoise-shell, horn, and a great 

 variety of purposes.'' 



An excellent account of the natural history and economic applica- 

 tions of the camphor tree was issued in 1897 by the Division of Botany 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, Circular No. 12. It 

 is reproduced with some slight condensation : — 



" Description. 



u The camphor tree is an evergreen, related to the bay and to the 

 sassafras of the United States. In its native habitat it attains a height 

 of 60 to 100 feet, with wide-spreading branches and a trunk 20 to 40 

 inches in diameter. The leaves are broadly lanceolate in form, acum- 

 inate at both base and apex, of a light green colour, smooth and shining 

 above and whitish or glaucous on the under surface. The lower pair of 

 lateral veins are more prominent than the others, but the leaves are not 

 as distinctly 3-nerved as those of the cinnamon and many other species 



* Prom Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, B. Gardens, Kew, May 

 and June, 1899. 



