Paet ill.] PuEAN Singh : Note on Manufr. of N gai Camphor. 271 
Blumea balsamifera D.C. 
B. balsamifera (Burmese, Poung-ma-theing) is an evergreen 
semi-shrub-like composite sometimes growing into a small tree.l It is 
woolly throughout, the leaves, which smell strongly of camphor, being 
thickly covered with silky villi or soft downy substance. The flower- 
heads are rather small and shortly pedunculated, forming large 
tomentose panicles, spreading or pyramidical in shape. The florets are 
numerous and yellow in colour. The pappus is soft, and red or pinkish 
pale-coloured. 
Habitat. — The plant is indigenous to Eastern India and is found 
from the Himalayas to Singapore and in the Malay .Archipelago. It 
also grows in South China and the islands Hainan aud Formosa. It 
is found to grow very abundantly in Burma, where it freely springs up 
in deserted Toungyas or Poonzohs^ and in other forest lands which are 
devoid or nearly devoid of trees. 
Remarks. — The plant flourishes best in sunny exposures. Its flower- 
ing and fruiting time is the hot season. Its wood is the pale -coloured, 
soft, and exceedingly light, but with a close grain. 
The Chemistry of Camphor. 
It is not necessary to describe the chemistry of camphor in great 
detail, but a brief and general account of the most important facts re- 
garding the composition and the properties of the three well-known 
varieties of camphor may usefully be given here. 
Camphor in chemistry is a general term apphed to a variety of 
oxygenized sohd bodies all of vegetable origin and similar in their general 
characteristics. They are colourless, translucent, volatile substances 
of tough, waxy structure, and are generally extracted from what are called 
the essential oils. Of the niunerous camphoi’s or stearoptenes, as they 
are also designated, three only are objects of commerce. They are — 
(1) Laurus or common camphor, (2) Borneol or Borneo camphor, and 
(3) Blumea or Ngai camphor. 
i. Laurus camphor, Cj^HjgO. 
This is the most important commercial form of camphor, and is 
1 For a complete botanictl description of the plant vide Kurz, Forett Flora o/ 
British Burma, II, p. 82 ; also Sir J. D. Hooker, Flora of British India, III, p. 270. 
2 Touugya Poonz^h or simply Poonzoh, meaning deserted culture-land, is tbe 
name given to large tracts of forests which have been deserted after having been 
felled and utilized for two or three years for rice cultivation by the Purmese. 
