334 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



afterwards assumes a beautiful amber colour. Tt is brittle, and 

 when broken shines like glass. It is much harder than the sort 

 known by the name of Dammara Selanica, and in some degree admits 

 of being bent ; but when pounded it is friable. The product of the 

 male trees is more white and pellucid, but dries more slowly, and 

 exudes in a smaller quantity, whence little or none is collected from 

 them. To force a supply of this substance, it is usual to make 

 incisions in the lower part of the trunk with sharp knives. This 

 occasions the formation of large knots in the wounded places, which 

 protrude like heads, as in the Maple, are covered with dammar, and 

 put forth a number of branches. The smell of fresh and soft 

 dammar is perfectly resinous, but when dry this substance does not 

 emit any particular odour ; thrown on burning coals, it gives out a 

 smell partaking of turpentine and mastic. It is very inflammable, 

 and burns longer than the Dammar Selan, but without any crackling ; 

 though it emits a great quantity of acidulous smoke, which produces 

 a very unpleasant effect on those who are unaccustomed to it. The 

 common dammar, collected from the knots on the lower parts of the 

 tree, is, when sold in the market, white and semi-transparent, but is 

 liable to change colour, varying from reddish to horny, and even to 

 black ; nevertheless, it is always hard and semi-transparent. In 

 this respect it is like the great masses and heads which hang from 

 the thicker branches and oldest trees ; for as these cannot, on 

 account of their height, be ascended, the masses hang on them 

 the longer, and so lose their original whiteness, and become of a 

 horny colour. This circumstance is particularly remarkable on the 

 Dammar trees about Way, whence I am led to believe that the 

 variation of colour proceeds from the difference of the time of year, 

 or from the time that the masses remain in their native situation. 

 In the year 1688 I sent a piece of dammar to the University of 

 Leyden, which in its form resembled the head of an infant, and by 

 artificial means had been made to assume like features ; but the nose 

 was very ugly, and there were red marks near it resembling 

 streaks of blood. I have also in my own possession a large 

 white semi-transparent mass which resembles an immense ox's gall- 

 bladder. Some of the crystalline branches sent to Holland did 

 not retain their colour, but became there a sort of amber hue. 

 The Malay name of ' Dammar puti ' and ' Dammar batu ' signifies 

 stone resin, for it is the hardest of all the dammars, and approaches 

 very near to the Gum animai. Among the Ternaats it is called 

 only ' Salo,' or ' Salo bobuda' ; in Amboina, ' Camal camar ' and 

 ' Gama ' ; about Lariqua, ' Isse ' ; and about Grisecca in Java, 

 ' Dama. ' The medicinal uses of this resinous substance have perhaps 

 not yet been discovered. Some of the people of Amboina, however, 

 whose feet have been wounded with thorns or splinters of wocd, have 

 no sooner extracted the latter than they have dropped into the 



