THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 
557 
1846.] 
Myrrh. — This celebrated gum is brought from Arabia and Abyssinia, and is 
much used by the Chinese for incense and perfumery. It exudes spontaneously 
from a tree of the genus acacia, or is obtained by an incision. The pieces ought 
to be light, clear, and unctuous, but very often other gums are mixed with it. 
The price varies from 3 to <}j>4 per pecul in the Canton market. 
Mace. — This article is taken to China in some quantity. There is a kind of. 
mace found in Malabar which externally resembles the true, so that the sight alone 
cannot distinguish them. That from this coast has a resinous taste, and is but 
slightly aromatic. 
Camphor. — The camphor-tree (dryobalanops camphora) is only found in Bor- 
neo and Sumatra, and there confined to a small extent of country, extending about 
three degrees north of the equator. > 
In Sumatra the best gum is obtained in the district of Barus, and hence all simi- 
larly good brought from these two islands is called Barus camphor. To collect it 
the natives go into the forest, cut down the trees, and split them open, and scrape 
the gum from the fragments; it is there found in small fragments as a thick gum, 
ready for use . 
Not one tenth part of the trees yield gum or oil, and, not being cultivated, the 
Barus camphor is becoming more and more scarce. Before cutting the trees down 
it cannot be determined if the trees are productive or not. 
It is divided into three kinds. The best is in lumps, apparently crystallized in 
the crevices of the tree; the second is somewhat brownish, and but few slicks in it; 
while the third, and worst, is the refuse scrapings. 
All that is produced in Sumatra and Borneo, about eight hundred peculs annual- 
ly, is brought to China, where it brings nearly eighteen dollars a pound, while that 
from Japan brings but one dollar, although there is no perceptible difference be- 
tween them. Nearly all the camphor exported to Europe and America is obtained 
from the laurus camphora, a tree which grows in China, Japan, and Formosa. 
The tree, including the roots, is cut into small pieces and boiled, the sublime gum 
being received into inverted straw cones. It is then made into greyish cakes of a 
crumbling consistence and brought to market. That from Japan is esteemed the 
best. The Dutch sent from Japan in seven years to Europe 310,520 pounds. The 
price is from twenty to thirty dollars per pecul, while that of Barus is from one 
thousand to two thousand dollars. 
Amomum. — This is the seed of the amomum verum, and has a strong taste and 
pungent aromatic smell. The fruit is shaped like a grape, and contains three cells, 
in each of which there is a number of blackish seeds. The pods are of little value, 
as are the seeds also when they are wrinkled and small. When good, the pods are 
heavy, of a light grey color, and filled with grains. Their uses are similar to those 
of star aniseeds. 
Assafoetida.— There are considerable quantities of this gum brought to Canton, 
and it ranks very high in the materia medica of the Chinese physician. It sells at 
from four to five dollars a pecul. 
Bamboo. — The different uses to which this plant is applied in China is perhaps 
greater than any other vegetable production in the known world. It is used for 
building for masts, and for all the purposes to which round timber can be applied, 
when it is not required to be exceedingly strong ; also for food, the young shoots 
being eaten when six "or eight inches high, and three to four inches in diameter. 
From it most of their paper is produced; cups, boats, sails, ropes, medicine, sweet- 
meats, lamp.wicks, beds, pillows, fodder ; and the roots are also' fashioned into the 
form of gods, after the manner of old sages, the small fibres forming the beard; 
and in many of their houses are paintings of it, which is one of their objects of 
worship. It is exported in considerable quantities for canes, umbrella-sticks, &c. 
Gambier, of which I have given a description before, is imported in considera- 
ble quantities into China from Java and other islands. The trade is in the hands 
of the Chinese, who pay at the emporia one dollar or two dollars per pecul. One 
of the principal of its uses among the islanders is as a masticatory with the betel- 
nut. It is used in China for tanning. 
Oil of Nutmegs. — Nutmegs produce both an essential and volatile oil. The 
former is known under the name of Banda soap. It should be free from impuri- 
ties, and of a pleasant aromatic smell. The volatile oil is not known in commerce. 
