THE PHILIPPINE 



Journal of Science 



A. Chemical and Geological Sciences 

 and the Industries 



Vol. A' MAY, 1910 No. 3 



THE STUDY OF MANILA COPAL. 



By Paul C. Fkeee. 

 (From the Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I. 



The chemical laboratory, assisted by the botanists of the Bureau of 

 Science, has for some years past been engaged in the study of minor 

 forest products, as time and materials permitted. Some of this work 

 has already appeared in several papers on resins and wood oils, chief 

 among which have been those on Manila elemi. 1 



Probably the main article of export of this nature from the Philippine 

 Islands is Manila copal, the Spanish term almaciga for many years 

 having been locally applied erroneously both to it and the tree from which 

 it comes. An expedition from this Bureau, as early as 1903, while 

 ascending Mount Pulgar in Palawan, camped on the side of the moun- 

 tain at an altitude of about 850 meters, in the midst of a magnificent 

 forest composed almost entirely of a growth of Agathis alba (Lam.), 

 from which tree the copal of commerce is derived. We observed fresh 

 resin, sometimes in large masses, on the sides and in the notches of the 

 trees wherever they had been wounded, but what was especially interest- 

 ing, on digging along the roots of several especially large specimens, 

 we observed not only fairly large masses of fossil resin contiguous to them, 

 but small drops or masses of copal which had exuded from the smaller 

 radicles extending deep into the ground. It appeared probable that 

 all of these exudations were derived either from radicles which were 

 dying or which had been injured in some way, perhaps by the bites of 

 insects. Nevertheless, this observation led us to the conclusion that 

 it is not by any means certain that injury must always precede the 



Clover, A. M. Philippine Wood Oils. This Journal, Sec. A (1906), 1, 191; 

 The Terpene Oils of Manila Elemi. (1907), 2, 1. Bacon, Raymond F. Philippine 

 Terpenes and Essential Oils, I. This Journal, Sec. A (1908), 3, 49; Philippine 

 Terpenes and Essential Oils, III. (1909), 4, 93; Philippine Terpenes and Essential 

 Oils, IV (in press). Richmond, George F. Philippine Turpentine. Editorial. 

 This Journal, Sec. A (1909), 4, 231. 



95193 . 171 



