Oils and Fats< 



10 



[July, 1911. 



state that according to recent German 

 Consular Reports *, the total output 

 has declined to 9579 piculs, of a value of 

 680,827 Haikwan Taels of which 4889 

 piculs were exported via Shanghai and 

 3945 via Foochow and Amoy. For the 

 year 1910 only the figures of the ports of 

 shipment are yet known. Shanghai 

 exported 4410 piculs, while Foochow 

 shipped 981 piculs to Hong Kong and 

 Amoy, 21 piculs to Hong Kong and 3 

 piculs to Singapore. It is not probable 

 that there will be an increase in the 

 exports so long as the price does not 

 advance above the parity of 145/ per cwt. 

 cif. London, which corresponds to a cost 

 price of 60 H, T. at Shanghai. 



Upon comparing the statistics of ex- 

 ports from Shanghai (Central China), 

 with those of Foochow and Amoy 

 (Southern China) it will be found that 

 for the past four years the shipments 

 from Shanghai have remained almost 

 unchanged, while those from the two 

 other ports have shrunk to barely more 

 than one-twentieth of the old figures. 

 The reason of this is that in the South 

 the supplies of trees have been reck- 

 lessly wasted, but not so in Central 

 China, where, on the contrary, large 

 reserves of trees are left almost un- 

 touched, extending far into the interior 

 towards the province of Szechuan. If 

 the price of camphor should go up, these 

 supplies may possibly be utilised also, 

 provided by then the Chinese have 

 learned more rational and economic 

 methods of production. 



Under the title " Camphor Industry in 

 Foreign Countries " the Bureau of Manu- 

 factures of the American Department of 

 Commerce and Labour has published a 

 comprehensive Report by several U. S. 

 Consuls t. The contents are indicated 

 by the title. The several reports so far 

 as regards natural camphor are from 

 Japan (Yokohama and Kobe), Formosa 

 (Tamsui) and Ceylon (Colombo). The 

 report from Borneo deals almost exclus- 

 ively with the conditions relating to 

 Borneo. As becomes the leading position 

 of Germany in the domain of synthetic 

 camphor, the report on this article is by 

 the U.S. Consul at Hamburg. The 

 reports contain detailed information on 

 the mode of preparation and the condit- 

 ions of trade in every producing district 

 of any importance, but as these matters 

 have already repeatedly I een dealt with 

 in our Reports we refrain from entering 

 into further particulars. 



* Nachrichten f. Handel u. Industrie 1911, 

 No. 39, p. 4 and No. 31, p. 4. 



f Special Consular Reports Vol. XLIII, Part. 

 III. Washington 1910. 



According to a communication by 

 Thorns* to the German Colonial Con- 

 gress, held at Berlin from October 6th 

 to 8th, 1910, the Committee for the 

 Economic Development of the German 

 Colonies has offered a prize of 3000 M. 

 (£ 150, & 750) for the first. 5 kilos of 

 camphor produced in a Gei man Colony. 



We have referred on a previous 

 occasion t to Cayla's detailed statements 

 on the occurrence of a true and a spur- 

 ious camphor tree in Indo-China. At that 

 time, Lan identified the spurious tree as 

 Cinnamonium zeylanicum, Br. Cayla 

 leports} that Dubard has lately 

 botanically examined two parcels con- 

 sisting of parts of plants from both 

 species of trees sent to him by the Agri- 

 cultural Department of Indo-China, and 

 that he (Dubard) has proved beyond 

 doubt that the specimen marked 

 " spurious camphor tree " was as a mat- 

 ter of fact derived from Cinnamonium 

 Camphora, while the specimen marked 

 " true camphor tree " consisted of parts 

 Cinnamomum cecidodaphne var. uniflora. 

 There was no room for any error so far 

 as Dubard's identification was concerned, 

 Lemarie (continues Cayla) observes in 

 connection with the above that the 

 differentiation between the true and 

 the spurious camphor tree was merely 

 a personal distinction made by Crevost, 

 by whom also the two specimens in 

 question were forwarded. According to 

 Dubard the fact remains that two 

 species of Cinnamomum occur in Indo- 

 China, both of which are designated 

 there as " camphor trees" and both of 

 which according to Meissner, contain 

 camphor. Lan passes without remark 

 the identification of one of his speci- 

 mens as C. cecidodaphne and continues 

 to maintain that his spurious camphor 

 tree is identical with C. zeylanicum, 

 although the occurrence of the cin- 

 namon trees in Indo-China is not referred 

 to either in the previously existing liter- 

 ature on the subject or in the recent 

 work of Perrot and Eberhardt. It 

 would indeed be remarkable if the 

 Annamese, who surely must have strip- 

 ped the tree of its bark at some time or 

 other, had named the tree from its 

 negative instead of its positive proper- 

 ties. The Japanese, too, call their cam- 

 phor tree the "spurious cinnamon tree 

 of Japan." In any case the occurrence 

 of Cinnamomum zeylanicum in Indo- 

 China would be a new fact and well 

 worth further investigation. 



* Chem. Ztg. 34 (1910), 1237. 



t Report April, 1908, 23. 



t J ourn.d' Agriculture tropicale 10 (1910), 252. 



