90 
Jcco,unt qftJie Camphor Tree qf Sumatra. 
The Camphor trees are the raonarchs of the forest, being of- 
ten a hundred feet perpendicular to the first branch ; and they 
are as straight as masts. We ordered one to be cut down, and 
got a little camphor in it. The camphor is found in concrete ^ 
masses, in - cracks and hollows in the heart of the tree. Very 
little of it finds its way to Europe ; it chiefly goes to China, 
where it bears a price about thirty times that of the China 
camphor, which is the article we use. The latter is the produce 
of the Laurus Camphora^ obtained by boiling ; the former of 
an imperfectly known genus, called by Gaertner, who only saw 
the fruit, Pyrohalanops^ and is the natural product of the tree. 
It is not exactly known what occasions its enormous value in 
China, 3000 dollars a pecul of 1 33 lbs. It has been supposed 
that it was mixed with their own camphor, and sold again in 
that adulterated state ; but the difference of price renders this 
improbable. I rather suspect that the Chinese, whose epicu- 
rism is very extraordinary and different from ours, use it in 
some way or other for culinary purposes. Besides the camphor, 
the tree yields an oil which is very powerful. It only flowers 
once in four or five years, and was not in flower when I was 
there. I got, however, specimens last year. I scrambled over 
several of the hills during the two days we remained at Tappa- 
hooly, and got some new plants. ^ * Here there is in fact 
a field new and untrodden by the foot of science, a harvest re- 
served for me to reap; and it shall not be neglected, for 1 have 
every advantage and opportunity. * 
Indiana, off Natrall, \ 
^9th February 1820. ) 
Art. XVI. — Remarks on the La,rus Parasiticus or Arctic ' 
Gull; and on the Larus Rissa or Kittiwake; with an Account 
qf the Greenland Kittiwake; — and on the Colymhus Grylle^. 
By Lawrence Edmondston, Esq. Zetland. 
1 HE materials of a system of zoology, established on a broad 
and permanent foundation, may be expected to be chiefly de- 
rived from the collected labours of individuals describing the 
* Read before the Wernerian Society, ^th and 18th May 1822. 
