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XX. THE SANDARAC RESINS OF THE CALLITRlS. 



The oleo-resin of the Callitris is contained in the cells of the inner bark, 

 and when this becomes injured in any way, the oleo-resin slowly exudes, and forms 

 " tears " on the exterior of the trees. This resin is known vernacularly as " Pine 

 resin " or " Cypress Pine resin," and in composition and appearance closely 

 resembles the original sandarac of commerce. With some species of Callitris, 

 however, the resin is in larger masses or tears than is common with the African 

 sandarac, and this peculiarity is particularly noticeable with the exudation of 

 C. calcarata (Black Pine) and in a lesser degree with that of C. glauca (White 

 Pine). The resin from C. arenosa is in smaller tears, and very closely approaches 

 the North African sandarac {Tetraclinis) in every respect. 



So far as we are aware, there has not been devised a method for successfully 

 injuring Callitris trees, so that the resin might collect in masses, and thus be 

 easily obtained in quantity. This is probably due to the method of cutting the 

 bark, which, in the past, has been done horizontally, and so only a small number 

 of cavities have been opened at one time. In view of our contention that these 

 trees do not contain resin canals in the bark, but rather cavities or cells, better 

 success might perhaps be obtained by making a long vertical " blaze " through 

 the inner cortex, and so tap at one time a larger number of these cavities, from 

 which a larger flow of resin should be obtained. 



The two most widely distributed species of Callitris occurring in New 

 South Wales are C . glauca and C. calcarata, (see map) and it is probably from 

 these species that the greater portion of the sandarac sent from Australia has 

 been obtained. A considerable amount of this resin has been collected at various 

 times, and shipped to Europe ; but the collecting has always been spasmodic, 

 and but little systematic effort has, so far, been made to gather it in large quantities, 

 and continuously. From what little has been accomplished, however, in this 

 direction, it seems fair to assume that a considerable quantity of sandarac could 

 be obtained from the Australian Callitris, if the collectors were dealt with more 

 fairly as regards price. If some arrangement could be made whereby a fair market 

 value could be assured, then sandarac could be collected in Australia in any desired 

 quantity. c 



A Sydney collector who undertook to supply two tons of sandarac from 

 the Australian Callitris, has given us the results of his experience in this under- 

 taking. His greatest difficulty in collecting this amount of resin was that it 

 could not be made to flow at all quickly by artificial means, so that it was necessary 

 to gather the naturally exuded resin. He found that the young trees as a rule 

 gave the most resin, and that the greatest quantity was obtained from trees which 

 had been ringbarked for one or two years. The resin was obtained principally from 

 the " Black Pine" (C. calcarata), as but Uttle had exuded from the " White Pine " 



