H 
A note on some Gum Benjamin from the Federated Malay States 
sent to the Imperial Institute in 1905 was published in the Bulletin 
v, p. ( 261. Examination showed that it resembled Palembang Ben* 
zoin, and at prices at the time (1906) would be valued at £2.8 to £2.10 
per cwt. a better quality at £3.8 per cwt. 
Benzoin is not mentioned by Marco Polo, but we have an early 
account of it by Garcia da Orta in 1593 (Historia aromatum). He 
describes two forms known in his time (l) the almonds ( amygdaloides ) 
which came from Siam and the borders of Martaban, and which took 
its name from its containing portions like nails ( ungues ) or white 
spots. This was the most valued form then as it is now ; (2) the form 
from Java and Sumatra which was cheaper. He mentions a black 
form from Sumatra called Benjin de Boninas, on account of its 
pleasing scent which was of ten times the price the other forms. He 
gives the nameCominham (Keminiyan) as Chinese and gives also the 
Arab name Louanjaoi (Luban Jawi). He describes also the tree of 
which he had specimens, with some accuracy, and states that it 
occurs in Malacca in wet woods, and says that the natives obtain the 
resin by wounding the tree. The young trees give, he says, the most 
fragrant resin, the Benjin de Boninas, which is obtained from the 
province of Bayros. He obtained this information and the specimens 
at some expense of money, as besides the great difficulty of penetrat- 
ing the forests of Malacca, there was the greatest danger to be feared 
from the tigers which dwelt in the forest and which the natives called 
Reimones, a quaint latinizing of Rimau. 
Marsden's History of Sumatra, p 123, gives an account of the 
product as treated in his day (1783). The tree, he says, grows in 
great abundance in the northern parts of the island, principally in the 
Battak country, and is met with though rarely to the south of the line 
where, from natural inferiority,, or want of skill in collecting it, the 
small quantity produced is black and of little value. In some places 
near the coast the natives cultivate large plantations of it as the 
quickness of its growth affords them a probability of reaping the ad- 
vantage of their industry. The seeds or nuts are sown in the paddy 
fields and afterwards require no other cultivation than to clear away 
the shrubs from about them. When the trees are grown so big as to 
have trunks of six or eight inches in diameter incisions are made in 
the bark from whence afterwards the gum exudes which is carefully 
pored off with a knife. The purest of the gum coming first from the 
tree is white, soft and fragrant, and is called Head Benjamin. The 
inferior sorts, which in the operation are more or less mixed with the 
porings and perhaps other juices of the tree, are darker coloured and 
harder, particularly the foot which is very foul. The trees will seldom 
bear a repetition of these incisions more than 10 or 12 years. The 
head is subdivided into Europe and India head of which the first is 
superior and the only sort adapted to that market, the other with 
most of the belly goes to Arabia, the Gulf of Persia and some places 
in India. “ It is brought down from the country in “Tambangs ” or 
