242 NOTES AND QUERIES ON ASIATIC COPALS. 



Dammar and Manila mastic. If we are to believe implicitly in what 

 the majority of writer's on the subject tell us of the first of these sub- 

 stances, we shall regard it as solely the produce of an East Indian 

 forest tree named, botanically, Valeria Indica. SirW. B. O'Shaughnessy 

 writes — " The substance called East Indian Copal, and sold in England 

 as gum anime, exudes abundantly from this tree." It should be noted 

 that the substance known in the London market as gum aniine is a very 

 different resin to that of Vateria Indica, and though I have, during the 

 past ten years, carefully watched the market here, especially in so far as 

 Asiatic resins are concerned, I have never met with a fragment of genu- 

 ine piney resin (Valeria Indica), offered for sale. There are several 

 kinds of hard resins produced on the Asiatic continent, and others in 

 the islands of the Archipelago, to which it will be well to devote a 

 few remarks in succession ; although of local interest and value, only a 

 few of these reach our shores. 



. Piney Resin {Vateria Indica), when recent is soft, and is then called 

 piney varnish, but on exposure it becomes hard and brittle, of all shades, 

 from a pale, bright green, to a deep amber. It readily assumes the form 

 of any vessel in which it has been collected, and when hardened is ordina- 

 rily broken up into irregularly shaped pieces without any traces of regular 

 " tears." It is remarkably clear and transparent, especially the greenish 

 varieties, and would probably find a ready market. Major Drury says, 

 " It is procured by cutting a notch in the tree, sloping inwards and 

 downwards, from which the resinous juice runs, and is soon hardened 

 by exposure to the air. It is usual, when applying it as a varnish, (in 

 India), to apply the resin before it hardens, otherwise to melt it by a 

 slow heat, and mix it with boiling linseed oil. A spirit-varnish is pre- 

 pared by reducing to powder about six parts of piney and one of cam- 

 phor, and then adding hot alcohol sufficient to dissolve the mixed 

 powder. Alcohol will not dissolve piney without the camphor, but, 

 once dissolved, retains it in solution. The varnish thus prepared is 

 good for varnishing pictures, &c, but before being used requires to be 

 gently heated to evaporate the camphor, which would otherwise pro- 

 duce a roughness on the picture, in consequence of its subsequent 

 evaporations. In addition to these uses it is made into candles, on the 

 Malabar coast, diffusing an agreeable fragrance, and giving a clear light 

 and little smoke. A vulnerary balsam is also made of the resin mixed 

 with oil. The tree which produces this resin is a native of Malabar, 

 and is found abundantly in the Coorg forests, and in many other parts 

 of Southern India. Dr. Buchanan mentions the varnish in his 

 " Journey through Mysore, &c," where he gives a curious account of 

 the method of applying it, as pursued by the natives. — " Some men of 

 the Pauchala tribe, which here is called Peningelan, paint and varnish 

 by the following process : They take buttermilk, and boil it with a 

 small quantity of quick linie until strings form in the decoction, and 

 separate from the watery parts, which they decant. The stringy matter 



