Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1884 — The Camphor Tree. [ARTICLE]

The Camphor Tree.

One of the most useful and magnificent productions of the vegetable kingdom that enrich China, ancQnore par ticularly the provinces of Kiang-si and Canion, is the camphor tree. This stupendous laurel, which often adorns the banks of the rivers, was in several places found by Lord Amherst’s embassy above fifty feet high, with its stem twenty feet in circumference. The Chinese themselves affirm that it sometimes attains the height of more than 300 feet, and a circumference greater than the extended arms of twenty men could embrace. Camphor is obtained from the branches by steeping them, while fresh cut, in water for two or three days, and then boiling them till the gum, in -the form of a white jelly, adheres to a stick which is used in constantly turning the branches. The fluid is then poured into a glazed vessel, where it concretes in a few hours. To purify it the Chinese take a quantity of finely powdered earth, which they lay at the bottom of a copper basin; over this they place a layer of camphor, and then another layer of earth, and so on until the vessel is nearly filled, the last or topmost layer being of earth. They cover this last layer with the leaves of a plant called po-ho, which seems to be a species of mentha ('mint). They now invert a second basin over the first, and make air-tight by luting. The whole is then submitted to the action of a regulated fire for a certain length of time, and then left to cool gradually. On separating the vessels the camphor is found to have sublimed and to have adhered to the upper basin. Repetitions of the same process complete its refinement. Besides yielding this valuable ingredient the camphor tree is one of the principal timber trees of China, and is used not only in building but in most articles of furniture. The wood is dry and of a light color, and, although light and easy to work, durable, and not likely to be injured by insects.