fry 'jV^Y 
ON THE GAMBOGE TREE OF CEYLON, V\ & 21 
The specimens which 1 possess of the Ceylon tree and its 
product, and the characteristic drawings with which these are 
accompanied, together with the information I have obtained 
regarding it, I owe entirely to the great kindness of my most 
intelligent correspondent, Mrs. Col. Walker; who, conjointly 
with her husband, is profiting with equal zeal, judgment, and 
success, by the ample opportunities which they enjoy of cul- 
tivating an acquaintance with the botany of that rich and in- 
teresting island, Ceylon. It will give value and authority to 
these observations, if I make some extracts from Mrs. Walker's 
letters, in which the tree, in conformity with previously re- 
ceived opinion, is called Stalagmitis cambogioides, — and I 
shall afterwards state what the tree really is. 
In her first letter, dated Colombo, 1st July, 1833, Mrs 
Walker says, " I have set about the Stalagmitis cambogi- 
oides, which is at present in fruit, and have drawn a branch, 
with a section of the fruit. I have likewise procured some 
gamboge from the tree; it is brilliant and excellent. It is ob- 
tained from two other trees here, the Garcinia Cambogia, 
and an unknown tree, which Col. Walker thinks is a Garci- 
nia likewise. Specimens from both I shall send you, and 
drawings* also. The fruit of G. Cambogia is much used by 
the natives in their curries; and I am told, when quite ripe 
is a very fine fruit, as large as the Mangosteen, which it re- 
sembles in form. The native name is Goraka. The fruit of 
Stalagmitis cambogioides is much smaller, very sweet when 
ripe, and by no means disagreeable in flavor. It is called 
here Kana (or eatable) Goraka. I have not yet ascertained 
all the uses made here of gamboge, but it is certainly employed 
as a pigment by the native artists. Our servants say it is also 
used by native practitioners in medicine, and sometimes as a 
plaster, when first taken from the tree. It does not appear to 
exude like a gum, but on an incision being made, it issues freely 
*I have received excellent drawings of Garcinia Cambogia, (Willd.,) 
of Garcinia Cambogia, 0. (Moon,) and of the unknown plant alluded to, 
together with specimens of the two first, but none of the last, which seems 
a species of Carallia. — R. G. 
