136 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



our waste tops, leaves, and chips would not prove remunerative. The 

 recent resin always finds a market, and the difference in price is but small. 

 Something would, at any rate, be gained by lessening the demand for the 

 dry resin, and so deferring the period of total exhaustion. It was in 

 1878 exported to the value of £132,975, and in a few years will become 

 less easy to procure than at present. 



In Formosa, camphor is extracted by a rough mode of distillation, from 

 a description of which our bushmen may perhaps derive a useful hint in 

 connection with our neglected forest products. 



Water is boiled in a wooden trough, or hollow trunk, protected from the 

 direct action of the fire by a coating of clay ; the upper portion of the 

 trough is covered by a board having numerous small perforations. Chips of 

 camphor-wood are placed on the board and covered with earthen pots, so 

 that the steam passing through the apertures extracts the camphor and 

 deposits it on the upper surface of the pots. 



Turjjentme. 



Turpentine may be regarded as resin held in solution in a volatile oil. 

 It is produced by numerous pines and other trees ; but varies considerably 

 in value, some kinds being used chiefly for the manufacture of resin, as that 

 of the 2^wasW for instance ; while the turpentine obtained fi-om the silver-fir 

 simply requires straining to free it from accidental impurities, and render it 

 fit to be used in the manufacture of clear varnishes. 



Mastic and Chian turpentine are obtained from Pistacia lentiscus and 

 P. terebinthus, but the quantity is inconsiderable when compared with that 

 obtained from various pines. In Europe, common turpentine is extracted 

 from the Scotch fir, Baltic spruce, larch, pinaster, and silver fir. In North 

 America, from the loblolly pine (Pinus tceda) and the Georgian pine 

 (Pinus australis). 



Actual experiments are necessary to determine to what extent the pines 

 of New Zealand can furnish a substitute for the turpentine of Europe and 

 North America ; but there can be little doubt that large quantities can be 

 obtained from the kauri, rimu, kahikatea, and others, by incision of the outer 

 bark in a similar manner to that practised in North Carolina and other 

 Southern States. 



In some countries the resmous matter obtained fi'om the trunk, by 

 excision, is collected in baskets, which are placed over earthenware jars, so 

 as to allow the fluid portion to drain off, forming the common turpentine 

 of commerce. The solid portion is boiled in order to purify it, when it 

 becomes ordinary resin. 



The process of extracting the turpentine from the pinaster has been 

 already described under the head " Eesin." Turpentine obtained from this 



