DK. F. WELWITSCH ON TUE GUM COPAL IN ANGOLA. 297 



from older works which belong to a time when but a few coastal 

 settlements of the tropical part of the African continent were 

 accessible to scientific exploration. An honourable exception 

 among these publications is the pajier hy Dr. Daniell*, in the 

 London Pharmaceutical Journal, which contains some very 

 interesting genetical and mercantile data in relation to the gum 

 resin of Tropical West Africa. This paper has all the more 

 claim for consideration and critical estimation, because the 

 author resided personally as physician for several years in dif- 

 ferent places in West Tropical Africa, and it may be admitted 

 that his views are founded more on his own personal experience 

 than on the communications of others. Dr. Daniell divides all 

 the Copals which come into the trade into East-Indian, Ameri- 

 can, and African ; and amongst those of the western coast of 

 Africa he distinguishes the Copal of North Guinea from that of 

 South Gruinea : but as many kinds of gum, as well as Copal resin, 

 are found both in the countries north and south of the equator, 

 the basis of this division is deficient. Still less correct is the 

 subdivision by the author of the South-Gruinea Copal into 

 Congo- Angola and Benguella Copal. It seems that he was not 

 aware that several coast factories in Congo receive a large por- 

 tion of their Gum Copal from different districts of Angola, and 

 that the factories in Angola often have their stores furnished 

 from the branch factories in Congo as w^ell as Benguella. How- 

 ever, special attention should be paid to Dr. Daniell's communi- 

 cation on the origin of the Sierra-Leone Copal, where he speaks 

 of a particiilar tree as yielding the resin, which he represents to 

 be the Ghiiboicrfta copallifera described by Mr. Bennett in the 

 ^ Journ. Linn. Soc* vol. i. p. 150, and which, in a late publication 

 by Mr. Bentham, is said to be a species of Gopaifera, Lin., and is 

 described by him as the Copaifera Guibourtiana^ in the last pub- 

 lished part of the 'Linnean Transactions.' According to Dr. 

 Daniell, this tree grows in the higher moimtain-forests near 

 Sierra Leone, and is conspicuous by its peculiar inflorescence and 

 its bifoliated leaves ; but he does not state whether he saw the 

 trees in situ with the gum sticking to them, or whether he only 

 received branches of the tree from negroes ; and as regards the 

 fruit of the tree, he admits he has described it only by hearsay. 



With reference also to the Copal resin furnished by the Oui- 

 hourtia, he appears not to have been quite certain whether all 

 the kinds described by him belong to the same species ; for after 



Pharmaceutical 



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