DE. r. WELAVITSCII ON THE GUM COPAL IN ANGOLA. 295 



a clear transition of colour from white to jelloWj and from yellow 

 to red ; which leads me to the supposition that the different colour 

 is rather to be attributed to the age of the tree from which tlie 

 Copal came, or to the condition of soil in which the tree grew, or 

 to other climatological causes, than to a specific difference among 

 the gum-yielding trees. For the present the most important 

 question is whether the Grum Copal exported for so many years 

 from Angola and other tropical countries on the west coast of 

 Africa is still produced by trees, or whether it is to be considered 

 (like Amber) a fossil resin which was produced in former geolo- 

 gical epochs of the African continent, or from trees which either 

 do not now exist at all, or of which only a few scanty fossil 

 remains are to be met with. Although, from my own observa- 

 tions during my residence in Angola, I am firmly of opinion that 

 the Angola Copal is a fossil resin, I think it right to mention 

 and comment upon the opinions and statements of those writers 

 and travellers w^ho assert that the resin is derived from living 

 trees. Oliveira Pimental, a learned Portuguese chemist, main- 

 tains, in a paper published at Lisbon in 1852*, tliat Gum Copal 

 comes from the Symenosa verrucosa. Lam. But this tree, which 

 IS also described by Haynef as TracJiylohium martianvm^ and 

 which has been classified by Mr, Bentham as Cynometra Spruceana^ 

 has never been found in Africa at all ; it is an American tree, and 

 can consequently in no way be regarded as the mother plant of 

 the Angola Copal. Ladislaus Magyar, a Hungarian traveller in 

 South Africa, who during his journey often met with Gopal- 

 gatherers, asserts with great precision J that the Acacia nilotica, 

 which grows in abundance on the mountains behind the town of 

 Benguella, furnishes the Gum Copal. Leaving out of the ques- 

 tion whether the Acacia nilotica really occurs in the district of 

 ^gola, I cannot refrain from remarking that a traveller who 

 finds in the forests of Tropical Africa species of Platanus, Cornm, 

 Quercus, Populus, &c., with Heliconian, Tillandsi<s, and creeping 

 Tagetes^^ can hardly expect us to believe his botanical asser- 

 tions. It seems more likely thai Magyar confounded Gum 

 Copal with other gums, or perhaps in his inquiries as to its 

 origin he was intentionally deluded by the negroes, w^ho carefully 

 try to keep secret the places where Copal is found. To the 



Relatorio da Exposi^ao agricola dc Liaboa, 1852, p. 51. 

 t Arzneigewachse, xi. tab. 17. 



t Magyar hazl6 elelatricai Utazasai & Pe&th, 1859, German edition, p. 59. 

 § L' <:- pp. 57, 61, 235, 231, &c. 



I^INN. PKOC— BOTANY, VOL. TX, X 



