"
"I have never read of any camphor-mines," replied his governess,
laughing, "and I think you will find that camphor--which is just what I
meant--is obtained from the trunk of a tree."
"Like India-rubber?" asked Edith.
"No, dear, not like India-rubber, for it grows in even a more curious
way than that, masses of it being found in the trunk of the camphor
tree--not in the form of sap, but in lumps, as we use it."
"I thought it was like water," said Edith, in a puzzled tone.
"So it is when dissolved in alcohol, as we generally have it; but it is
also used in lumps to drive away moths and for various other purposes.
But I will tell you all about the tree, which grows in the islands of
Sumatra and Borneo and bears the botanical name _Dryobalanops camphora_.
The camphor is also called _barus_ camphor, to distinguish it from the
_laurus_, of which I will tell you afterward, and it is of a better
quality and more easily obtained. The tree grows in the forests of
these East Indian islands and is remarkable for its majestic size, dense
foliage and magnolia-like flowers. The trunk rises as high as ninety
feet without a single branch, and within it are cavities, sometimes a
foot and a half long, which cannot be perceived until the bark is split
open. These cavities contain the camphor in clear crystalline masses,
and with it an oil known as camphor oil, that is thought by some to be
camphor in an immature form. But the oil, even when crystallized by
artificial means, does not produce such good camphor as that already
solidified in the tree.
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