SUMATRA. 
The champhire tree is a native of the northern parts of the ifland only, 
growing, without cultivation, in the woods which He near to the fea 
coaft, and is equal in height and bulk to the largeft timber trees, being 
frequeatly foiind upwards of fifteen feet in circumference. The leaf is 
fmall, of a roundifh oval, ending in a long point or tail; the fibres run- 
mng all parrallel and nearly ftreight. The wood is in much efteem for 
carpenter's purpofes, being eafy to work, light, durable, and not liable 
to be injured by infects, particularly by the cocmbaagy a fpecies of bee 
which from its faculty of boring timber^ for its neft, is called in com- 
aaoD, the carpenter. 
The camphire being of a dry nature docs not exfudc from the tree, 
or manifeft any appearance on the outfide. The natives, from long 
experience, know whether any is contained witKin, by ftrlkiog it with 
a flick. In that cafe they cut it dmra and fplit it with wedges into fmall 
|)ieces, finding the camphire in the intcrftices, in the ftate of a concrete 
cryflilazation. Some have aflerted that it is from the old trees alone 
that this fubftance is procured, and that in the young trees it is in a 
fluid ftate, called nmnia sapmr^ or campbtre oil; but this, 1 have good 
authority to pronounce a miftake. The fame kind of tree that pro- 
duces the fluid, does not produce the dry, tranfpa tent, and fleaky fub* 
Hance, nor ever would. They are readily diflinguiflied by the natives* 
Many of the trees, however, produce neither the one nor the other* 
The native camphire Is purchafed on the fpot, at the rate of fix Spanifh 
dollars the pound, or eight dollars the catty, for the beft (ott-^ which 
fells at the China market, for about twelve or fifteen hundred dollars 
the pecul of an hundred catties, or one hundred, thirty three pounds 
and a third. The traders dtfiingulih ufuaUy, three different degrees of 
quality in it, by the names of head, belly and foot^ according to its 
purity and whitenefs, which depend upon its being more or lefs frc;^ 
from particles of the wood, and other heterogeneous matter, that niix 
with it in collecting, after the firfir large pieces are picked out. Some 
add a fourth fort, of extraordinary fihenefs, of which a few pounds only 
I i are. 
