216 
DRYOBALANOPS CAMPHORA. 
seed is solitary, conforming to the cavity of the capsule, and has a 
strong terebinthinate fragrance.* 
The camphor of commerce, which is brought to Europe from the 
Islands of Sumatra and Borneo, was generally supposed to be the 
product of the Laurus Camphora; and the British Colleges, in con- 
formity to the received opinion, considered the officinal camphor as 
being so furnished. It was observed by Koempfer, in speaking of 
the Laurus Camphora, and of the extraction of camphor from its 
wood and roots, that " natural camphor in substance, and of the 
greatest value, is furnished by a tree on the Islands of Sumatra 
and Borneo, which is not of the Laurus genus;" but no accurate 
description had been given of the tree, until Mr. H. T. Cole- 
brooke, having received (from Mr. Prince of Taponooly) some 
living plants, and a number of seeds in very perfect condition, was 
enabled, from the examination of them, to determine the genus to 
which it belongs. 
The precise age when this tree begins to yield camphor has not 
been ascertained ; but the young trees are known to yield only oil, 
which has nearly the same properties as the camphor, and is 
supposed to be the first stage of the camphor forming. Both cam- 
phor and oil are formed in the heart of the tree, occupying a space 
(which in others is frequently filled with pith) of about a foot or a 
foot and a half long, at certain distances. The method of extracting 
the oil, is by making a deep incision with a billing or Malay axe, in 
the tree, about fourteen or eighteen feel from the ground, till near 
the heart, when a deeper incision is made with a small aperture, and 
the oil (if any) in the tree, immediately gushes out, and is received 
in bamboos, &c. The camphor is procured in pretty nearly the 
same way : the trees are cut to the heart about the same distance 
from the ground as in the former instance, till the camphor is seen : 
hundreds may be thus mutilated before the sought for tree is disco- 
vered. When attained it is felled, and cut into junks of a fathom 
long, which are again split, and the camphor is found in the heart, 
occupying a space of the circumference of a man's arm. The pro- 
duce of a middling sized tree is about eight China catties, or nearly 
eleven pounds, and a large tree will yield nearly double the quan- 
* The above description we have transcribed from Mr. H. T. Colebrooke's scientific 
paper on this subject, in vol. xii. of the Asiatic Researches ; he says, " The descrip- 
tion I shall offer of it is unavoidably imperfect, as the flower has not yet been seen by 
any botanist." 
