183 



usually refined in Canton, whence about 10,000 pounds are exported 

 annually. The source of this supply is abundant, and as the industry 

 develops it is likely to enter more into competition with ordinary cam- 

 phor. Neither of these plants can be grown in the United States, ex- 

 cept possibly in southern Florida, without protection against cold. 



" Lyster H. Dewey, 

 " Assistant in Division of Botany. 



" Washington, D. 0., 

 " August 12, 1897." 



There is a brief note on Borneo camphor wood in the Kew Bulletin 

 for 1887 (September, p. 15), and a full account of Bluraea camphor in 

 the volume for 1895 (pp. 275-277, with plate, and also 1896, p.73). 



Production in Formosa. 



The following is extracted from the Foreign Office Report on Trade 

 in Japan for 1897. (Misc. Series, 440, pp. 71-72.) 



The trade in camphor will probably undergo -some modification. 

 Camphor trees are not found in that part of the island (of Formosa) 

 occupied by Chinese settlers. They occur only in the country of the 

 aborigines, or upon the immediate border, and up to the present time 

 the destruction of trees has been carried on in the moat wasteful manner. 

 The mode of obtaining supplies of camphor was for foreign merchants 

 through Chinese agents to advance money to the savage chiefs for per- 

 mission to cut down trees. The stills were erected at the expense of 

 the foreigners, who paid a tax of 8 dol. a still to the Chinese authorities, 

 and a local tax of 10 dol. on each picul (133 lbs.) of camphor produced. 

 When the island was ceded to the Japanese the privileges which for- 

 eigners had enjoyed under Chinese rule, of having these camphor 

 establishments in the interior, seemed likely to be withdrawn by the 

 Japanese Government. The Chinese treaty, much more than the 

 Japanese, gives freedom of travel and trade to the foreigner ; and if 

 the limitations imposed by our treaty with Japan had been strictly en- 

 forced in Formosa, foreigners would have had to retire to the treaty 

 ports. They would have been debarred from distilling or purchasing 

 camphor in the interior, and they would have suffered heavy losses in 

 abandoning the capital already sunk there. Considering that the 

 present treaty had only two more years to run, the Japanese Govern- 

 ment has consented to let matters remain in statu quo ; and when under 

 the new treaty, foreigners obtain a right to settle anywhere in the in- 

 terior, they will be able to distil as much as they like. But there is 

 also a probability that the preparation of camphor will be made a Gov- 

 ernment monopoly. With the Formosan supply under its control the 

 Japanese Government could almost secure a monopoly of the camphor 

 trade, for Japan and Formosa are almost the only sources of supply ; 

 and advantage may be taken of this to put Formosa's finances on a 

 satisfactory basis. The land where the camphor trees grow are not 

 privately owned as is the best portion of Formosa's fertile plains, so the 

 Government could appropriate the camphor producing districts without 

 interfering with vested interests. 



