1837.] Remarks on the Gamboge Tree of Ceylon. 239 



not have long to wait for. However, I was mistaken in this; the tree 

 did not blossom till March, 1834. I drew it then, but have not since 

 been able to send it home, not a single ship having sailed from hence 

 to England during that long interval; and, I fear, after all, that you 

 will consider my drawing incomplete, as it is only the barren flower I 

 have had the means of representing. So at least it seems to me, and I 

 got quantities of the blossoms, and examined agreat number, and found 

 them all the same. I shall send you specimens for your own examina- 

 tion; but I am sorry to say, they look very shabby and poor. The 

 flower, however, in its best state, is insignificant, and poor-looking. 

 The tree does not grow abundantly nor luxuriantly in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Colombo. Last January we took a little excursion, 

 and got quite into a forest of Stalagmites cambogioides, and per- 

 ceiving all the trees had their bark cut off in various places, 

 I concluded the people in the neighbourhood must be in the 

 habit of collecting the gum, and determined to get all the informa- 

 tion I could on the subject, for your edification. From a very intelligent 

 native practitioner in medicine, 1 gained the following :— He told us that 

 Gamboge from the Stalagmitis, called by the natives Gokatu, or Kana. 

 Goraka, is generally used by them, both as a pigment and medicinally. 

 For the former purpose it is ground very fine with lime-juice,* and 

 mixed with a pretty strong solution of the gum of the Wood Apple 

 (Feronia Elephantum), called in Singhalese, Diicul. With the ad- 

 dition of a little Chunam, or Lime, they make a deep orange-colour, 

 both tints being much used in the decoration of their temples, and 

 Boodh himself is always represented in yellow garments. Yellow is 

 indeed the sacred colour, the priests being invariably arrayed in yellow 

 robes. 



" As a medicine, the Gamboge is ground to a fine powder, and being 

 mixed with the juice expressed from the leaves of the Tamarind tree, 

 is taken with a little water. This is the most common mode of ad- 

 ministering it as an aperient; but when mixed with other ingredients 

 it is considered by native practitioners to be beneficial in many diseas- 

 es. It is collected by cutting pieces of the bark completely off, about 

 the size of the palm of the hand, early in the morning. The Gamboge 

 oozes out from the pores of the bark, in a semi-liquid state, but soon 

 thickens, and is scraped off by the collectors next morning without in- 

 jury to the tree, the wounds in the bark readily healing and becoming 

 fit to undergo the operation again. The learned doctor, who gave us 

 this information, presented us with a large pot or jar of Gamboge, and 



* In a recent letter to Dr. Christison, Mrs, Walker says that she finds this to be a mis- 

 take. As a yellow pigment, the juice is used without any preparation ; the addition of 

 lime juice injuring the colour— an observation which Dr. C. has confirmed by experiment! 



