GUMS, RESINS, AND VARNISHES. 117 



practical tests being made upon its suitability for varnifch- 

 making, was favourably reported on, and valued at from 

 £80 to £100 per ton. Some of these samples are now 

 contained in the Museum at Kew. It is the produce of 

 Oopaifera Gorskiana. 



Some later information on the subject is given in the 

 Kew Bulletin, No. 24, for December, 1888, where an extract 

 from a letter from Inhambane, under date Feb. 5, 1886, 

 states : — " Many tons of copal have been exported from 

 Inhambane. For some choice pieces I have received as high 

 as £13 10s. per cwt. The average price realised on larger 

 lots has been £1 per cwt. The forest containing the trees 

 extends from the River Sabia in a south-westerly direction 

 as far as Beleni." 



Fresh seeds were also received at Kew, and several 

 hundred plants raised from them, which have been distri- 

 buted from Kew to India, Fiji, Singapore, Jamaica, Trini- 

 dad, Demerara, Dominica, and tropical parts of Australia. 



Another varnish-making resin, but little less important 

 than Zanzibar Anime, is Kauri or Cow die resin of New 

 Zealand. This, like Anime, is a semi-fossil resin, more 

 commonly known in trade, however, under the name of 

 Kauri Gv/m, and is the produce of Dammar a australis, a 

 very large coniferous tree valued alike for its timber as for 

 its gum. (<Sfee Timbers.) The best Kauri gum is dug from the 

 ground beneath the trees, or where the trees do not at present 

 exist. Thirty-three years ago Kauri gum was imported 

 into this country only in small quantities, for we find that 

 in 1853 the total exports of the gum from New Zealand 

 to all countries amounted to only 829 tons, of the value of 

 £15,971 ; in 1883 this had risen to 6,518 tons, valued at 

 £336,606. It is said that over two-thirds of the produce 

 goes to the United States ; and there are no available 

 returns of the imports into this country, though the quan- 

 tities are very large. Though gum-digging gives employment 



