360 Treatise on 
Authors were a long Time uncertain concerning 
the Origin of this Juice, and have formed very 
different Conjectures about it. To omit the reft, 
Bontius in particular, Be Medicina Indorum , c. 9. 
fays it is the Juice of a Species of the P’ithymalus 
or Efula lndica *, and this Opinion has moftly pre- 
vailed. But herein Bontius feems to have been mif- 
led by depending too much upon the Veracity of 
others, having never himfelf feen the Plant from 
which Gamboge is obtained *, fince we are now fuf- 
ficiently aftlired that it is drawn from two large 
Trees, which are different Species of the Carcapulli . 
The firft is the Carcapulli , Acoft# Hijlor. Aromat . 
cap. 46. Coddam-Pulli , Hort. Malabar. T. 1. 41. 
Ghcraka Cingalenjibus dicta , Herman, not. ad Hort. 
Malabar . The other is the Carcapulli , Linjchot : 
Carcapulli , de Bry : Kanna-Ghoraka , id eft Ghoraka 
dulcis Cingalenfibus , Herman, not . ad Hort . Mala- 
bar. Both thefe Trees Cafpar Bauhine in his 
Pinax erroneoufly includes under one Species j for 
they differ not only in the Flower, but alfo in the 
Fruit, which in the firft is as large as an Orange, 
and in the laft no bigger than a Cherry, and of a 
much fweeter Tafte. They grow in Cambaia , 
China , Malabar , and the Ifland of Ceylon. 
Paul Herman , who faw the Gamboge procured 
from thefe Trees, fays it flows from Incifions made 
in their Trunks, in the Form of a yellowifh and 
fomewhat milky Juice, which being infpiffated by 
the Heat of the Sun to a due Confiftence, is mould- 
ed by the Hands into large round Cakes, or cylin- 
drical Rolls, and then is laid to dry. The Juice 
of the Kanna-Ghoraka or the Carcapulli with a fmall 
fweet Fruit is preferable to that of the other Tree, 
becaufe it is milder. 
Mr. Richer obferved a Tree yielding Gamboge 
in fome Parts of America , particularly in the Ifland 
of Cayenne , which he tells us is as big as an Oak- 
Tree. 
