Although Gamboge has been known in European commerce for nearly two centuries and a half, and its applications in the arts have been extended in recent times, the tree which produces it is still unknown to botanists.

The late Dr Graham, in 1836, was the first to describe accurately a species of Garcinia, which inhabits Ceylon, and which is well known there to produce a sort of Gamboge, not, however, known in the commerce of Europe. Resting on a peculiarity in the structure of the anthers, which are circumscissile, or open transversely by the separation of a lid on the summit, he constituted a new genus for this plant, and called it Hebradendron cambogioides. At the same period the Author examined the properties of this Gamboge, and found that it possesses the purgative action of the commercial drug in full intensity, and that the two kinds agree closely also, though not absolutely, in chemical constitution.