t of twenty feet, with a circumference of about
eighteen, and has luxuriant branches from seven to nine feet in girth.
In obtaining the gum, freshly-gathered branches are cut in small
pieces, and steeped in water for several days, after which they are
boiled, the liquid being constantly stirred until the gum, in the form
of a white jelly, begins to appear, when the whole is poured into
a glazed vessel, and becomes concreted in cooling. It is afterward
purified by means of sublimation, the gum attaching itself to a
conical cover placed over the boiling liquid while at its greatest
heat. There is another species of camphor tree (_Dryobalanops
camphora_) growing in Borneo; and a single tree is found on the island
of Sumatra, a very giant in dimensions, even amid the huge growth
of those dense forests. The gum yielded by this species is found
occupying portions of about a foot or a foot and a half in the heart
of the tree. The Malays and Bugis make a deep incision in the trunk
about fifteen inches from the ground with a _b'ling_ or Malayan axe,
in order to ascertain whether the gum is there; and when it is found
the tree is felled and the impregnated portion carefully extracted.
The same tree, while young, yields a liquid oily matter that has
nearly the same properties as the camphor, and is supposed to be the
first stage of its formation. Some eight China catties (eleven pounds)
of this oil may be obtained from a medium-sized tree, which, after
having been cut off for the purpose of abstracting the oil, will, if
left standing for a few years, produce abundantly an inferior article
of camphor.

In British India we saw whole fields of the opium poppy, stately,
beautiful plants four or five feet high, the stem of a sea-green
color, round, erect and smooth, and the gay blooms of ripe crimson
hue. The plant is an annual, the seed being sown in autumn and the
crop gathered in August. After the flowers have fallen circular
incisions are made close around the capsules of the plant, and from
these wounds exudes a white, milky juice, that is afterward concreted
by the heat of the sun into dark-brown masses. These constitute the
opium of commerce in its crude state; but to prepare it for smoking
the Chinese take it through quite a complicated process, boiling,
purifying and condensing till it assumes the appearance of a thick
gelatinous paste of a purplish-black color.

The habit of opium-smoking is unquestionably the direst curse