Note 429 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO (continued 4)

MS. 5,650 says simply that the camphor exudes in small drops. The Malay camphor tree (dipterocarpus or Dryabalanops camphora) is confined, so far as known, to a few parts of the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, where it is very abundant. The oil (both fluid and solid) is found in the body of the tree where the sap should be, but not in all trees. The Malay name for camphor is a slight corruption of the Sanskrit one “karpura,” and to distinguish it from the camphor of China and Japan, the word Barus is annexed (the name of the seaport of the western coast of Sumatra, whence camphor was chiefly exported from that island). The Malay variety is higher priced than the Chinese. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 81.