142 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
February 14, 19f3 
juice is from February to March or April. Though the best 
system for collecting is by scoring the trunk, as described in 
Ceylon, it is usually collected by cutting thin slices from the 
bark on different pails of the trunk, upon which wounds the 
gum resin collects ; and when it has become sufficiently dry, it 
is scraped off. In India small incisions are made, the gamboge 
exuding from them in small drops or tears. 
Gamboge consists of a mixture of resin and gum, and is 
therefore properly a gum-resin. Its chief use is as a pigment 
for use in water-colour drawing. It is also. much used for 
lacquering brass-work and in medicine as a powerful cathartic, 
more perhaps at the present time in veterinary than in regular 
practice. 
Gamboge seems to have been known to the Chinese, and 
used only as a pigment, so early as the end of the thirteenth 
century. There is a record that in 1G15 a considerable quantity 
was offered for sale in London by the East India Company, the 
entries in the Court Minute Book describing it as “ Cambogium, 
a drug unknown here ” ; “'A gentle purge.” 
The following other Indian species of Garcinia all yield a 
kind of gamboge in greater or lesser quantities, and of varying 
qualities: G. travancorica, G. cornea., G. Cowa, G. anomala, G. 
heterandra, G. speciosa, G. stipulate, G. succifolia, and G. 
Wightii. 
A third important species of Garcinia from an economic 
point of view is G. indica, known as the Kokum Butter Tree.. 
It is of slender growth, with drooping branches, commonly 
found in the Southern Cancans, where it. is very much cul¬ 
tivated in gardens. The fruit, which is about the size, of a 
small Orange, ripens in April, when it is conspicuous for its 
bright purple colour. It has an agreeable flavour, and has 
long been used in India as an article of food, while the juice 
is sometimes used as a dye. It is, however, for the valuable 
oil which is contained in the seeds to the extent of about. 30 
per cent, that the plant is best known and most highly valued. 
To obtain this oil or butter the seeds are cracked and the 
shells removed; the kernels are then pounded in a stone 
mortar, the mass being transferred to an earthen or iron pan 
with some water and boiled. From this it is transferred to 
another vessel to cool, in the process of which it rises, to the 
surface, becoming firm or solid as the cooling process proceeds, 
when it is roughly shaped into egg-shaped pieces by rolling in 
the hand. The oil is also prepared by submitting the kernels 
to an ordinary oil mill, by which the oil is expressed and after¬ 
wards solidified. When fresh, Kokum butter has a faint, not 
unpleasant smell, and a sweet, oily taste. Like true butter, it 
melts in the mouth readily, leaving a sensation of coldness. It, 
is largely used in medicine in India, and is considered demul¬ 
cent, nutrient, and emollient. It is also used in the prepara¬ 
tion of ointments, and is considered to be an excellent sub¬ 
stitute for spermaceti. In native cookery it is also, occasionally 
employed, as well as in soap and candle making. The oilcake 
or residue, after the expression of the oil, is considered an ex¬ 
cellent manure. 
It will be conceded that the genus (of which the foregoing 
remarks are only a sketch of its economic value) is one of con¬ 
siderable interest outside its horticultural limits. 
Bismarckia nobilis. 
Very few specimens of Bismarckia nobilis have yet found 
their way into private establishments of this country. Our 
illustration was taken from a specimen in the Palm House at 
Ivew, where a large number of species from all parts of the 
world have been gathered together. Several plants are grown 
in pots or tubs, one of the specimens being 8 ft. to 10 ft. high. 
The leaves are orbicular, and deeply cut into double finger¬ 
like processes, resembling, in a general way, those of a Thrinax, 
but more robust in all its parts. The leaf stalks are veiy 
strong, deeply channelled on the upper surface, and covered 
when young with rough, brown scales, not unlike the ramenta 
of Ferns. 
When it becomes more common it may be turned to decora¬ 
tive account, much in the same way as the Latanias and 
Livistonas with which gardeners are familiar chiefly in the 
young state, though some large specimens of Livistona 
chinensis (better known as Latania borbomca) and Livistona 
australis have not infrequently been exhibited in the form of 
specimen Palms at flower shows. L. rotundifolia has more re¬ 
cently come into general use as a commercial and decorative 
plant, in a small state, The short leaf-stalks and the relatively 
small orbicular leaves render it even more suitable for this 
>£» 
IS?] 
Bismakckia nobilis. 
While not exactly new, the above Palm is very little known, 
and when the third volume of the “ Genera Plantarum ” was 
published in 1883 it was briefly noticed amongst the doubtful 
or imperfectly known genera. The remarks about it were 
quoted from the description of Hildebrandt and the late 
Hermann Wendland in the “ Botanisch Zeitung,” 1881, 93. 
It was described as a fan Palm, from Western Madagascar, and 
belonging to the tribe Borasseae. Better known Palms belong¬ 
ing to this tribe are Borassus, Lodoicea (the Double Cocoa-nut 
of Coco cle Mer), Hyphaene, and Latania, the latter alone fur¬ 
nishing Palms that are at all well known jn this group. 
kind of work than L. chinensis ; but, though pretty, it. is 
scarcely so elegant as well-grown specimens of the latter. 
Judging from the Kew specimens, it is easy of cultivation, 
and may be successfully grown in a compost of good fibrous 
loam, leaf mould, and sufficient sand to keep the material open. 
Some might employ a quantity of well-rotted manure in the 
compost, and others would use peat; but, in any case, it is 
undesirable to supply stimulants of any kind unless the roots 
are confined in a small pot, for the simple reason that overfed 
plants are liable to grow too. rapidly and become unmanage¬ 
able in a few years, except in houses of large size such as per¬ 
tain to botanical establishments. 
