556 
FOURTH BULLETIN OF 
[1846. 
ish, less aromatic, and less valuable than the smaller. This latter is a root of a red¬ 
dish brown color outside, and pale red within. The roots are about two inches long-, 
and the best are full, oval, and plump, have a bright color, a hot acrid peppery 
taste, and an aromatic smell. The smaller, which should be obtained if possible, 
sells for $3 50 to $4 a pecul. It is used in cookery. 
Gamboge.—This is a well known gum-resin, produced by the Staglamitis gam- 
bogioides, which grows in most of the warm countries of the east, and is shipped 
in considerable quantities from China to the west. It is used as a beautiful pig¬ 
ment, and as a valuable purgative medicine. The price varies from $70 to $75 a 
pecul. 
Cotton.—Raw cotton is brought mostly from Bombay and Bengal ; and usually 
it sells from nine to thirty-one taels per pecul. Except sheetings, which are from 
the United States, cotton piece goods are imported from England, the chief of 
which are cambric, muslins, chintzes, and long-cloths. Good unbleached long- 
cloths are the most suitable; cambrics are much in demand. Cotton yard comes 
from England and India; that from numbers twenty-two to forty-five is the most 
saleable. The sale of cotton goods, of all descriptions, is annually increasing. The 
Chinese tacitly acknowledge their superiority by slowing adopting them in the 
place of their own goods. 
Cubebs.—These are the fruit of the piper cubeba, a vine growing in China, Java, 
and Napal. Cubebs are valued at Canton, at from $18 to $20 per pecul. Eighteen 
thousand five hundred pounds have been imported into England in one year, but 
the Dutch carry on the largest trade. 
Damar.—This is a resin flowing spontaneously from several species of pines in 
the Malay peninsula. It is found in hard lumps, both under the trees and on their 
trunks. It is used for closing the seams of vessels. 
Dragon’s Blood.—This substance was well known to the ancients, and is obtained 
from the calamus ratang, a large ratan which grows in Borneo and Sumatra. 
It is found in the markets in oval drops, or in large and impure masses, composed 
of several tears. It is often adulterated with other gums, but that which is genuine 
melts readily, and burns wholly away. It is scarcely soluble in water, but fluent 
in alcohol. Its uses are various, in painting, medicine, varnishing, and other arts. 
The best is procured at Banjermassen, in Borneo, and is brought to this market in 
reeds. Its price varies from $80 to $100 per pecul. The Chinese hold dragon’s 
Diood in much estimation as a medicine. 
Ebony.—This is the heart-wood of the dyrsperas ebeneus, a tree found abun¬ 
dantly on the islands of the Indian ocean. The price of Mauritius ebony is about 
$f per pecul, and that of Ceylon and India $2 50. 
Campoor Cutchery.—This is the root of a plant which grows in China, but what 
plant produces it I have not been able to determine, having seen nothing of the 
plant but the root. It is about half an inch in diameter, and is cut into small pieces, 
and dried for exportation to India, and from thence to Persia and Arabia. It is 
of a whitish color inside, but externally it is of a reddish color, having a pungent 
and bitterish taste, and a slight aromatic smell. It is used for medicinal purposes, 
and to preserve clothes from insects, but is liable to be eaten by insects, as I ex¬ 
perienced with some I purchased in Canton. It sells for about $6 a pecul. 
Cardamons.—The lesser and greater cardamons are the products of two dif¬ 
ferent plants, Elettaria cardamomum and Amomum cardamomum. The cap¬ 
sule alone is used, and merely requires drying to be ready for sale. The lesser grows 
principally on the coast of Malabar, while the greater grows in China and Ceylon. 
Both are used in China to a considerable extent for culinary purposes. 
Nutmegs.—The illiberal policy of the Dutch with regard to the spices has forced 
the raising of the nutmeg tree at Bencoolen, in Sumatra, at Penang and Singa- 
poore, and many other places in the Archipelago, but attended with some disad¬ 
vantages. In the Canton market, nutmegs sell from $120 to $140 a pecul* Con¬ 
siderable quantities are brought in junks, but the greater part in foreign vessels. 
Musk-Seed.—These are the fruits of the hibescus abelmoschus, which grows in 
China and other countries. The Arabians use them to give flavor to their coffee. 
The seeds are flat, kidney-shaped, and about the size of a large pin’s head, and have 
a considerable odor of musk, with a slight aromatic, bitterish taste. They are now 
raised in South America and the West Indies. 
