The seeds vegetate in forty days, and are planted out in the second or third month afterwards.

At the expiration of fourteen months, the first cutting of the branches, with the leaves on, is made.  These are put into a boiler, and when the juice has been extracted, the branches and refuse are thrown away, and the boiling is continued until the liquor has obtained the proper consistence, when it is put into shallow troughs, dried, and cut into slices for sale.  The second cutting takes place eight months subsequently to the first.  The plant now grows strong and admits of frequent cropping, and it will endure for twenty years.  No manure is used, but the plantation is kept clean.

Estimated cost of cultivating ten orlongs, about 13 acres, according to Colonel Low:—­

Spanish dollars. 
Value of cleared land, ten orlongs 200
Six laborers per annum 360
Quit rent 7
Boilers, firewood, and implements 20
Houses 50
Incidental 30
——­
Total first year 667
Second year 397
——­
1,064

The six laborers on the plantation will, after the above period, be constantly employed in cutting and preparing the gambier:  the average product will be 15 piculs monthly, which, at two dollars per picul, will be 30 dollars monthly, or 360 dollars per annum.  This is the account obtained by collating different Chinese statements.

The Nauclea Gambir is placed by Jussieu under the natural order Rubiaceae; it is a shrub attaining the height of six to eight feet, branchy; the leaves are ovate, pointed, smooth, waving, distinctly veined transversely underneath, of dark green color, and, when chewed, they have a bitter astringent taste, leaving however, afterwards, a sweetish taste in the mouth, not unlike liquorice; the flowers are aggregate, globular, composed of numerous florets, crowded on a globular naked receptacle; tubes of the corolla of a pinkish color; the upper part of the corolla fine, cleft, and of a greenish yellow color; the staminae are five in number, and short; the pistil is longer than the corolla; the flowers are destitute of fragrance; the capsules (as correctly stated by Mr. Hunter) are stalked oblong, incrusted, and crowned with a calyx; tapering to a point below; two celled, two valved, the valves adhering at the apex, splitting at the sides; seeds very numerous, oblong, very small, compressed, furnished at both ends with a membraneous pappus.

The gambier plant is propagated either by seeds or cuttings, but the latter are preferred.  It is cultivated to some extent at Singapore, but it is said that the gambier can be imported cheaper from the islands in the vicinity, more especially at the Dutch settlement at Rhio.  The extract is used extensively by the natives of India, Eastern Archipelago, Cochin-China, and Cambodia, as a masticatory, wrapped up with the betel.