Sandal-wood is little known in Western commerce, but is one of the most important perfumes of the East, where it is chiefly burnt as incense in religious rites. Bombay yearly imports some 650 tons and exports about 400 tons. The chief market for sandal-wood is China, whose imports (in piculs of 1331 lb.) have recently been as follows :—Chinkiang, 30,818 plants in 1877, 23,719 in 1878, 25,537 iu 1879 ; Hankow, 15,582i piculs, 40,320/., in 1879 ; Kiukiang, 4378 piculs in 1877, 3451 in 1878, 4108 in 1879 ; Ningpo, 795 piculs in 1877, 963 in 1878, 1073 in 1879 ; Shanghae, 48,325 picnic from foreign countries, and 28,219 from Hong Kong and Chinese ports, in 1879; Taiwan, 3221 piculs in 1879 ; Wuhu, 5515 piculs in 1877, 5319i in 1878, 7161 in 1879.
Tonquin-, Tonka-, or Tonga-beans.—Tonquin or gayac beans are the fragrant seeds of Dipterix [Coumarouna] odorata, a tall tree of Venezuela, the Guianas, and some neighbouring locali ties, growing best in loamy soil, and easily raised from cuttings. The beans are used whole for perfuming wardrobes, ground for satchet-powders, and in the form of extract. The odoriferous
principle, coumarine, is common to the May grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum); to the xnelilot (Melilotus cceruleus), the zieger-kraut (" curd-herb") of Switzerland, whose dried and powdered flowers, worked up with the curd, give the peculiar odour and flavour to Schabzieger (Chapziger) cheese ; to the Faham tea-plant of the Mauritius (Angrcecum fragrans); and to the common sweet woodruff (Asperula odorata). It acts powerfully upon the brain, and is probably the source of " hay-fever." Tonquin-beans are received in much smaller quantity into this country than into the United States. The exports from the ports of Ciudad Bolivar, in Venezuela, to New York, were 33,083i lb. in 1878, and 133,046i lb. in 1879.
Vanilla.—The seed-pods of the vanilla-plant possess an agreeable odour, which is prepared from them by extracting with rectified spirit, and used in the manufacture of compound scents. The pods possess much greater industrial importance as a flavouring ingredient, and their production and commerce will therefore be described at length under Spices.