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“The botanical source of East Indian dragon’s blood is 
usual!} 7 given as Daemonorops draco, Mart, {Calamus draco, Wild.), 
and the method of manufacture is copied from one work to 
another. In 1878 a very beautiful specimen of dragon’s blood of 
an almost carmine red colour was presented to the Museum of 
this Society by the Commissioner of the Court of the Netherland 
Indies at the Paris Exhibition, and in 1890 some information 
was contributed by Dr. M. Tr pop, Director of the Buitenzorg 
Botanic Gardens in Java, on the source of the different kinds of 
dragon’s blood, and was published in the Pharmaceutical Journal 
for 1890 (3) 21, 518-519, This information showed that at 
Pontianak, in West Sumatra, whence the beautiful bright red 
dragon’s blood above-mentioned came, three different species of 
the dragon’s blood plant are characterised by having fruits of 
different size. The smallest fruits yield the most beautiful and 
most valuable dragons’ blood, which is called “Djernang MundaiP 
The tree yielding this kind is rare and the price of the resin high. 
The moderate sized fruits yield the kind sold in flat cakes of 
varying size, and this kind is known as “ Djernang Beroewang /’ 
The largest fruits yield the dragon’s blood sold in pipes, which 
is known as “ Djernang KoekoeP At that time the botanical 
source of these fruits was unknown. In 1903, Dr. Beccari, who 
botanised in Borneo and Sumatra, published in the Records of 
the Botanical Survey of India, Vol, 11. No. 3,224, an enumera- 
tion of the species of Calamus, which includes a number of species 
of the genus Daemonorops, all of one section of which yield, in a 
greater or less degree, a red resin, which is exuded by the scales 
of their fruits when mature. 
“ These resin-yielding species belong to the Section 
Piptospathae of the genus Daemonorops, in which the outer spathe 
does not completely enclose the inner, the spadix is narrow and 
cylindrical, or elongate before flowering, and then more or less 
diffusely branched. In this section there are three groups, and 
the dragon’s blood plants are found in the Group C, which is 
distinguished by having the outer spathes either both deciduous 
or the outer one along persistent, and more or less armed with 
short, stout spines, the leaf-sheaths being also armed with 
scattered or serrate spines, which are never confluent, into an 
annular or spinulose crest. As the species are discriminated rather 
by the character of the leaves and inflorescence than by the 
flowers, and the material in herbaria generally has either the one 
or the other, but rarely both on the same specimen, it is by no 
means easy to determine the species to which the fruits used for 
the preparation of dragon’s blood belong. 
“ From Beccari’s monograph it appears that Daemonorops 
draco, Blume, consists of two species, one which Beccari calls 
D. propinquus, the other being the D, ruber of Martius. These 
are found in Penang and Sumatra. The plant called D. ruber 
by Blume is a native of Java, and considered by Beccari to be 
