296 DR. T. WELWITSCH ON THE aUM COPAL IK AJCGOLA. 



two foregoing but little-trustworthy statements regarding tlie 

 origin of the Gum Copal I will add a third, which, from the high 

 scientific authority of the reporter, would be fully believed, if the 

 reasons upon which the author bases his statement did not prove 

 totally erroneous. Dr. Klotsch, who, it is known, has described 

 the greater portion of the plants collected by Dr. Peters in the 

 province of Mozambique, asserts* that all African Copal originates 

 from TracTiylobium Mossambicense, and perhaps also from T. 

 Jlornemaniamimj Hayne, trying to make it appear that no G-um 

 Copal whatever occtirs on the west coast of Africa, because, as . 

 he says, no mention is made of a tree in "Hooker's Niger Flora" 

 from which the Copal could be gained. But as I have proved 

 that by far the largest quantity of African Copal is not only 

 exported from the tropical west coast of that continent, but also 

 that it is really found and constantly gathered there, and, further, 

 as the Trachylobitmi Mossarnbicensey Klotsch, has hitherto no- 

 where been found on the entire western coast of Africa t by any one 

 of the numerous scientific travellers who have visited that country, 

 nobody will hesitate to regard Dr. Klotsch' s view as erroneous; 

 and T may therefore dispense with any further discussion of it. 

 I doubt whether even the Copal exported from the east coast of 

 Africa comes solely from Trachylohium Mossambieense (Klotsch), 

 as some kinds of the Copal which come from Mozambique bear a 

 delusive resemblance to the Animi resin found in the East Indies, 

 and this latter resin, according to several trustworthy reportsj, 

 is not obtained from Leguminosce but from the Vateria Indica, Z., 



tree 



Mozam 



bedded in it. The peculiar designs appearing on many samples 



Mozambique Gum Conal. which extend with ffreat regu- 



larity 



orisrm 



very experienced botanists and pharmaceutists to whom I have 



them have as yet not explained them. I may, I think, pass 



shown 



African 



which have hitherto appeared in pharmaceutical works published 

 in England, Germany, and France, as most of them are founded 

 on uncertain data and suppositions or are simply compilations 



W 



t Vide Bentliam et Hooker f,, Genera Plantarum, vol. L p. 583. 

 % Wight, lUustrations of Indian Botany, i. p. 86; Lindley, Veget. King 

 dom, p. 394. 



