DAM'MAR, or DAMMAR PINE, Dammara, a genus of trees of the natural order conit era, distinguished from all the rest of that order by their broad lanceolate leathery leaves, which have numerous nearly parallel veins, and by their seeds being winged, not at the end, but on one side. The tree from which the name, originally applied to its resinous product, has been extended to the whole genus, is the .11oLuccax D. (D. orientalis), which grows on the high mountain-ridges of the Molucca islands. It grows to a great height, attains a diameter of 9 ft., and generally has the lower part of the trunk beset with knots as large as a man's head. The timber is light and of inferior quality; and the tree is chiefly valuable for its resin, which is soft, transparent, hardens in a few days. and is then white, with a crystalline appearance. The resin often flows spontaneously from the tree in such quantity, that it hangs in masses like icicles of a handbreadth and a foot long. At another period of the year, it is yellow, and less valued. By incision, especially in the protuberances of the stem, it is obtained in large pieces. So long as dammar resin is soft, it has a strong smell; but loses it when it dries. It contains only a trace of volatile oil, but consists of two distinct resins, one of which is soluble in alcohol, the other not. It is light, brittle, and easily friable, readily soluble in oil of turpentine; quickly becomes viscid when heated; when sprinkled on burning coal, diffuses an odor like that of rosin or mastieli; readily takes fire, and burns with much smoke and a somewhat acid smell. It is used in Asia for domestic purposes, and in the arts like other resins; it is an article of commerce, and in Europe is employed in various ways to form varnishes, Which dry quickly, have a very bright luster, and being colorless, allow the beauty of the colors over which they are spread to be perfectly seen; but readily becomes viscid again, and are not permanent, so that this resin cannot be made a substitute for copal and amber. It is almost completely soluble in benzoic, and in this solvent, makes an excellent colorless varnish for positive photographs on glass—it is, how ever, scarcely hard enough for negatives.—To this genus belongs also the Kauri Pine
(q.v.) of New Zealand (D. Australis), which produces the resin known as kauri resin, or kauri gum—The word dammar, dammer, or damar, signifies resin in some of the lan guages of India. The resin known as BLACK DAMMAR is obtained in the Molneca islands from the trunk of marignia aeutifolia, a tree of the natural order amyridacece. It is a semi-fluid soft resin, with a strong smell, becoming black when it dries; it is used as pitch, also to yield a kind of turpentine, which is obtained by distillation.— Canariunt microcarpum, a tree of the same order, also a native of the furthest cast, yields, by incision of the trunk, a viscid, odorous, yellowish substance, very similar to balsam of copaiva, which is called damar or dammar, and is used in naval yards as oakum, being mixed with a little chalk and the bark of reeds, and becomes as hard as a stone.—Quite distinct from all these is the resin also called dammar or piney dammar in India, often also called copal (q.v.) in India, and anime (q.v.) in Britain, the produce of vateria Indica, a large tree of the natural order clipteraeets. It is obtained by wounding the tree, and when fresh, is clear, fragrant, and acridly bitter; when dried, it becomes yellow, brittle, and glass-like. It is used in India as a varnish (piney varnish), which is hard, tenacious, and much esteemed. It is also made into candles in Malabar, which, in burning, diffuse an agreeable fragrance, and give a clear light with little smoke. Some of these candles were sent to Britain, and were highly prized, but the excessive duty stopped the importation. Shorea robusta, the sal (q.v.), so much valued in India as a timber-tree, also of the natural order dipteracece, and some other species of shorea, yield a resin, also known as dammar, and as rah and dhoona, which is much used in dock-yards in India as pitch.