Part III.] Puran Singh : Note on Manufr. of N gai Camphor. 267 
Chinese frying pan (say, the diameter is 20 inches). The frying pan is 
filled with water, and over the water is placed a coarse sieve of woven 
bamboo to separate the leaves from the water. The cask is cemented 
with clay to the edge of the pan, and after receiving its charge of 30 lbs. 
or 40 lbs. of the leaves, a large brass basin is placed on the upper open 
end of the cask, and is filled with cold water, which is frequently changed. 
Fire is placed under the frying pan, and the process of distillation is 
continued for about four hours. At the end of that time the brass pan 
is lifted off, and its lower surface is found to be coated with a layer of 
crystallized substance about a sixteenth of an inch thick. This is the 
gnia-livn (local dialect for ai-fen), or crude camphor, which Mr. Unwin, 
the Commissioner, tells me is sent to Canton and re-manufactured into 
ai-p'-ien or refined camphor.’ 
“I enclose Mr. Gilman’s specimen (of the leaves of the plant from 
which he was told the camphor was distilled by the Chinese), which is 
not Blumea balsamifera, but, as well as I can make out from a cursory 
examination, is probably a species of Buddleia. There are no flowers, 
only leaves, and the latter have no camphoraceous odour when bruised, 
I am inclined to think that Mr. Gilman has been deceived as to the plant, 
and that the Chinese substituted the leaves of another plant for the 
one actually employed. I am inclined to think that Blumea balsam- 
ifera is the true source. The leaves of the Blumea have a certain rude 
similarity to those sent by Mr. Gilman. 
“ The authority for Blumea as the source of this peculiar camphor 
rests on Hanbury, Science Papers, page 394 . , . 
The above accounts of the method of the Ngai camphor manufacture 
practically tell all that is known regarding it. It may be of interest, 
however, to give here the most recent account available of the manufac- 
ture of Ngai camiphor. The interesting and valuable information given 
below is from the pen of the Assistant Political Officer stationed at Keng- 
lung, who, in a letter communicated to the Forest Department, Burma, 
in the year 1905, advocates the importance of undertaking an investiga- 
tion into the subject of camphor distillation in Burma to settle the 
question as to whether a profitable Ngai camphor industry could be organ- 
ised in that province. The said Political Officer, after mentioning that 
a considerable industry of camphor extraction is carried on in Kenglung 
from where the article is exported to the Southern Shan States, gives the 
following account of the camphor and its preparation : — 
“ Camphor, which is an article of considerable export from this State, 
is largely produced in the Mong Hai district of the State of Keng Hang 
