ON NATURAL HISTORY. 
215 
ART. LXL— NATURAL HISTORY.— Extract of a work upon Singa- 
pore ; addressed to M. De Lagrener, Minister Plenipotentiary, re- 
siding in China, by Dr. Yvan, Physician of the Legation, and Pro- 
fessor in the Secondary School of Medicine, Marseilles. 
Manilla, Aug. 1st, 1844. 
The Chinese are the only inhabitants of Singapore en- 
gaged in the fabrication of the substance known in com- 
merce under the name of Gambir and terra japonica, as 
also the cultivation of the shrub producing it. Of this cul- 
ture and manufacture I am about to give a brief description. 
The gambir, nauclea-gambier, of which I do not give a 
botanical notice, (it being found in all botanical works) is 
a bush of the family rubiacees, attaining to S or 10 feet in 
height. Its flexible branches spread out fully and occupy 
a considerable space; they are slender, and laden with leaves 
that afford but slight shade, and are easily penetrated by 
the sun's rays. Sometimes the Chinese sow the seeds of 
this bush to obtain the plants necessary for them ; at other 
times, and it is the method more generally adopted, they 
are satisfied to plant in the soil, slips taken from existing 
plantations. For this they prepare the ground beforehand 
by pulling up all the plants that might hinder the develop- 
ment of that which they would propagate ; an interval of 
three or foui feet is allowed between two stalks of 
naifdea. This done, they abandon the plantation to itself; 
the only attention it receives afterwards, is several 
months later, in ridding the plants of the parasites which 
have seized upon them. At the fourteenth or sixteenth 
month the bushes have attained their full development, 
and the first collection of leaves may be made with 
which to prepare the extract known under the name 
of gambir. This is done in the most simple manner: a 
furnace of the largest size, a cast iron or copper kettle, 
