90 DAMMAR AND WOOD OIL. 



and yellowish white, and rather soft and powdery. Most of the 

 dammar found in the ground in the forests is much oxidised out- 

 side, but the action goes on very slowly, and ground dammar in 

 good condition can often be found in spots where for many years 

 there has been no forest or dammar trees. Thus one can often 

 find pieces of dammar in the ground on Biakang Mati where 

 dammar trees have long ceased to exist. The greater part of 

 the dammar collected by the Malays is thus found by digging in 

 the ground where shoreas or other dammar trees have decayed. 

 No attempt is made to extract it from trees as is the case in 

 wood oil. The resin is used locally for making torches, and also 

 for varnish, but the export trade in Singapore has very much 

 declined of late years. Cat's- eye dammar and copal from Cele- 

 bes are almost the only dammars now exported from Singapore, 

 there being no demand for the less transparent varieties. The 

 copal which occurs in large beautifully transparent yellow mass- 

 es is derived from Shorea selanica BL, and is not to be confused 

 with the African and American Copals, which are derived from 

 species of Hymencea and Trachylobium {Legxdnnosce). 



Varieties of Dammar. 



The following is a list of the local names of dammars of the 

 peninsula as far as I have been able to get them. 



Damar Seraya Batu ; Damar Serctya. A hard opaque mass of 

 a dull orange colour, probably derived from Shorea leprosula Miq. 

 Kapong Labu is also from this tree. 



Kapong Jalor. A pipe-shaped mass, brown outside, inside 

 yellow, centre dull olive brown. 



Kapong Hantii. Dark brownish colour mixed irregularly 

 with yellow. Both of these are derived from Shorea macroptera 

 Dyer, the tree known as Kepong, as perhaps are Kapong Sabut, 

 Kapong S'lawang and Kapong Segan. 



Meranti Bunga, An amorphous mass nearly opaque of a 

 whitish olive yellow mixed with greenish brown and weathering 

 yellow. 



Meranti Sarang punai ; Meranti Tembaga, Meranti Sama, 

 Meranti Ketapa are probably derived from Shoreas. 



Meranti Batu, a dark brown weathering orange. This is 

 very similar to the Damar Daging of the Malays, which occurs 



